Nigerian artist Wisekid under fire for stealing millions of streams from Wizkid
Nigerian artist Wisekid has been accused of stealing streams from Wizkid and his latest album, Made In Lagos.
Wisekid appears to have uploaded a replica version of Wizkid’s Made In Lagos titled Lasgidi Made, the only other difference being the album artwork and the track list order.
The album has amassed 9.3 million streams, due to many mistaking the album for the Wizkid original.
Many streaming platforms have also distributed traffic to both Wizkid and Wisekid, regardless of which artist users listen to.
This is my Apple Music replay. I’ve listened to Wizkid for over 26hrs but Apple Music distributed it to Wizkid and “Wisekid”. It’s been going on since last year. pic.twitter.com/LZgMsixpFp
— Chemical Brother 👌 (@chemicalbrodar) April 6, 2021
As such, Wisekid has reportedly amassed N30m (around £60,000).
Wisekid even changed his social media handles to imitate those of Wizkid, adding ‘aya’ to the end of his Twitter and Instagram handles, instead of Wizkid’s ‘ayo’.
Wisekid went as far as copying Wizkid’s social media usernames. He used the handle, Wisekidaya on Instagram and Twitter.
He has deactivated his Twitter account and has just changed his Instagram handle to Ayaboyofficial. pic.twitter.com/bFjEjEBAHm
— Africa Facts Zone (@AfricaFactsZone) April 6, 2021
Wizkid’s Made In Lagos was released in October 2020, breaking several African streaming records and debuting at no. 15 on the UK Albums Chart.
The Nigerian artist, real name Hosea Yohanna, is now facing copyright infringement charges for the deceitful act.
Once the news began to spread of Wisekid’s actions, he was very quick to deny all knowledge of the fraud.
The artist even tried to throw his distribution company, Freeme Digital, under the bus, but they were having none of it…
Safe to say it’s not looking good for Wisekid…
Let us know your thoughts on this situation @pieradiouk
