Wizkid Was Once Rejected by Jay Z’s Record Label, Roc Nation

According to US rapper Wale, Roc Nation passed up on the chance to sign Wizkid.

The Jay Z-owned entertainment TV has been in the news recently with reports of an impending management deal offered to Tiwa Savage. But Wizkid could have been their first Nigerian-based artiste if things had taken a different turn.

Wale revealed during an interview on Hot 97, that during Wizkid’s earlier days, he had brought up the idea to sign the Nigerian pop star to Roc Nation, but it was rejected.

“I’m proud of Davido and Wizkid, and Olamide”, Wale said. “There’s a lot of dope artistes coming out of there. I know it was going to get there, because Nigeria’s got like a whole 60% of the swag in Africa come from Nigeria, and I have always known Wizkid.”

He continued: “I remember bringing the idea of signing Wizkid to Roc Nation, to the guys over here like early on…but that was way before his time, but I knew what it was gonna be. There’s so much money there, as far as like Dubai, London and all of that, I knew it was going to get there.

“I got one with Wizkid with Diplo, I’ve got like seven songs with Wizkid on the internet. But again, it was before this. Like again, If I had held on to him and put him on, it would have been a different story.”

Wizkid has been flying high after a number of international collaborations and features. The most prominent of these is ‘One Dance’, a song by Drake, featuring Kyla. ‘One Dance’ is contained off the buzzing “Views” album, and currently sits at the first position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Wale talks about the song, and expressed his desire to have heard more of Wizkid on the hit song. He also opined that Drake’s hit single, ‘Controlla’ had a lot of Wizkid influence, even though the singer was not credited, nor acknowledged for any work on it.

On ‘One Dance’ and Drake’s album, Wale said: “I like how it’s doing, It sounds good. I would like to hear more of Wizkid on there, on Óne Dance’. I can hear him on ‘Controlla’ though. It sounds like a Wizkid song.”

When asked to specify if he referred to the production, bWale was adamant, replying that “It sounds like a Wizkid song…The lyrics, everything. That’s just my opinion. I mean, he’s a phenomenal writer, performer and whatever, but I just feel like he sounds like Wizkid.”

He continued: “I’m not making no allegations, but I do feel like he had a lot of influence on ‘Controlla’. I mean I know Wizkid catalogue, he just sounds like the lyrics and everything. Something about ‘She wanna take my money and…’ Wizkid said that. Like ‘Take my money or have nmy money, it’s like Wizkid’s Hennessy or Enemies for 2pac. That’s Wizkid’s vibe. That’s his vibe. Like she wants my money, or I’ll give you my money, or dance for my money, that’s big talk in Nigeria.

Wizkid is set to perform with Chris Brown in Amsterdam, on June 11, 2016,