Since the rift between young pop stars Wizkid and Davido kicked off two years ago, there have been an endless series of online rants, snide remarks, and a race to outshine one another, and with several accusations and counter accusations flying around, the beef between them seems unending.
Interestingly, last year has been a success story for both Davido and Wizkid, who have churned out several popular songs while amassing wealth, affluence and fame.
Though awards haven’t rolled in yet for Wizkid as many may have expected since the end of 2013, Davido has been basking in several wins and nominations, helping to make their rivalry the most talked about in entertainment circles and among Nigerians.
Over the years, several episodes have been recorded in their beef, with the recent and most popular being their Twitter rants.
From their Twitter rants, which sparked off a social media war, it’s alleged in some quarters that the insults used by the ‘pop gladiators’ are some of the reasons they might not end the rift anytime soon.
Words like ‘Dumb ass ni**a,’ ‘Snitch’, ‘Smellos’, ‘pu**y’ have been etched in the minds of Wizkid and Davido, who found the words offensive but still went ahead to use them against each other in their state of anger.
Giving a face to their rift in an interview with Sahara reporters in New York, United States of America, on Tuesday, August 5, 2014, Davido said, "It’s not beef at all. But I’m the type of person if I feel something, to me everything you do, you don’t hit your brother down. This is the first time I’m saying this but the only reason I was upset was because of the NY concert. I was even going to tweet like you know ‘make sure everybody turn up for my brother Wizkid’s concert’ and he threw shade like that."
Continuing, the HKN lead act said, "I’m not going to take that…that’s why I went and said what I said. But it’s all cool, at the end of the day; we got to keep it on the music. Shout out to him. I’m still a big fan. It was never nothing but don’t throw shade at me…especially when we were on the flight earlier. By the way, check the numbers on my last concert. Let’s leave it like that."
Wizkid didn’t take it cool after the interview, as he took to his Twitter handle in the early hours of Wednesday, August 6, 2014 to once again covertly hit at Davido, referring to him as dumb!
"Dumb ass ni**as catching feelings, we just trynna make it over here, nobody got time for that," he tweeted.
Keeping mute on the rift even when fans made enquiries on the social media, Wizkid eventually opened up to popular OAP and MC, Olisa Adibua, on the rift and why he is not in a hurry to bury the hatchet.
"The situation is just so funny to me, because we all were on the same flight, I was only tweeting and talking about my show, I was talking about myself, you know I had a show in New York a year before that sold out, but the sound was bad, the venue we used was crazy and fucked up," Wizkid began.
"So this time I landed at the airport, drove through the venue and I saw my name in lights and I was like wow, I came down, took a picture and I posted it with the caption ‘Proper shows, proper venues’, and people started catching feelings. If I was really talking to anyone, then everyone else like Iyanya and others that have done shows in the U.S should be mad at it. When I saw it, I just smiled because I don’t have time. If you get mad at that, then it means you don’t do proper shows at proper venues. I was just promoting my show. I feel like if I’m happy about my success and you are hating on it, I don’t know if I’m to consider you as a friend or foe," the Starboy boss said.
"It won’t work out…nobody dey know where I dey now, I’m easy and cool with everyone, if you don’t come at me, I won’t come at you, if you pray for me I would pray for you, if you swear for me I go say make God punish you. The thing is let’s be honest, I have a 3 year old son, I have more important real life issues to deal with in my life, so I’m not into online beefs, I’m just trying to live my life," Wizzy as he’s fondly referred to stated.
The smooth relationship enjoyed by Wizkid and Davido five years ago, before their rivalry began is over, and only time will tell if they’ll ever get back to a place of peace and friendship.
Meanwhile, other artistes Phyno and Olamide, who seem to be enjoying an enviable friendship at the moment, have been advised to remain cautious and learn from the younger acts.
On Saturday, September 6, 2014, Wizkid released cover art and track list for his much-awaited second album - as if hoping to change the public discourse from all the Davido drama to his new body of works.
