Ubertalented Afrobeat singer, Wizkid, has revealed that he is not a big fan of music awards.
Wizkid revealed this in a new interview with supermodel and OAP, Naomi Campbell.
According to the Joro crooner, awards don’t define how great an artiste is because it is a scheme and show organized by a company to give to people.
In his words, “I am not a big fan of awards. I have been very vocal about it. It doesn’t define who you are. It doesn’t define your substance. It doesn’t define how amazing you are at the end of the day.”
For the Made in Lagos album owner, as long as his music touches the right people and makes them feel the right way, he’s very content and that is his award.
Touching on the humanitarian side of Wiz, Naomi had said “when Wiz goes out, he doesn’t go out often. But when he goes out, he goes out with his pocket full of money and he gives every cent away”.
Wizkid answered and said, “I love doing that because If I wasn’t a musician, I would probably be on the street because I’m not from a rich home. My parents are not wealthy; I changed the life of my family through music. I was blessed. God used me as a blessing to my family. If I wasn’t doing music, I would be like every normal kid on the street.”
When asked if music changed his life, Wizkid said, “Sure, it definitely saved and changed my life.”
On his choice of collaborations with young artistes, Wizkid revealed that he does so because he understands what it’s like to be in that phase, and collaborates with them because he understands what that will mean to their careers as young artistes.
He said: “I started when I was young, so I was like so young when I started, and I knew the amounts of Nos I got before getting to where I’m at. So now that I’m here, every kid that I see, it’s like I see you in me and I’m your biggest fan. I support you and I want you to be successful… because I know ho hard it is, especially here, to make music. It’s harder to make music in Nigeria in every way, down to even getting the right producer and getting your songs played.”
Talking about greasing people’s palms so they could play his songs on radio, Wizkid said; “I’ll never do it. I’ve never done it and that has always been my thing. Like I’ll never pay anyone to play my record, but people do it and I don’t blame them because there are so many records and you have to pay to get yours played.”
Speaking on how he picks collaborations, Wiz said, “I keep an open mind when it comes to collaboration because you’ll never know where you’ll get the best stuff from, maybe young or old.”
When asked where he draws his inspiration from, Wizkid said, “Fela’s music and artistry is second to none. I still draw inspiration from it. I want to make music like Fela, music that lives on.”
