Davido started 2017 on a dramatic note and the year has so far been quite dramatic, bumpy and most of all awesome for him.
For starters, OBO suffered a major hangover early in the year due to a frustrating spell in 2016 with global music giants Sony. 2016 wasn’t exactly the year for David Adeleke as the singer failed to pick up any awards due to an alleged creative battle with Sony Music.

1. Going Back To Basics

Right back to ‘17, the DMW honcho had learnt his lessons the hard way. He had struggled to do music with foreign appeal, hence he decided he was going back to basics, sticking with the African sound. That also meant changing a few things that were in anyway slowing down his growth. Kamal Ajiboye, his manager for four years received the axe as Davido cut him loose from his team. As expected Davido stirred up another ruckus by sacking Kamal and reinstating Asa Asika his first manager.
Getting back to the drawing board was inevitable because his career would have hit stalemate if something drastic was not done ASAP. He needed a lift.
 CHECK IT OUT DOWN THE LINK!!!!!!!
https://youtu.be/helEv0kGHd4

2. Finding & Riding On The Pon Pon Sound

Going back to basics was just the magic Davido needed to rule the airwaves again. Here is how the journey to a super dope year began for the former BET award winner. The singer hooked up with buzzing colleague and music producer Tekno who produced arguably the biggest song in Africa, ‘IF’.
Since its release ‘IF’ has gone viral even across the boundaries of Africa. Several American stars have caught the bug from the infectious tune from Davido. Omarion was caught on cam vibing to the song. R&B great R.Kelly couldn’t help but do a remix to it,  plus hundreds of covers to the song have been done within Nigeria. And the fame goes on.
‘IF’ was a monster hit but Davido wasn’t going to slow down or wait too long to release some fresh music. Then ‘Fall’ happened.  Going back to basics and employing the ‘pon pon’ music seems like a master stroke. Without long ‘Fall’ was everywhere. You know a song is without a doubt a monster hit when children from the streets chant to the lyrics of the song.  The use of ‘Banana’ as euphemism became much stronger and widespread, jokes were spun around the subject. ‘Money fall on you, banana fall on you’ slogan began to rule the streets just when ‘30 billion for the akant’ was becoming too familiar and cliche.  Boooom! This simply meant Davido had succeeded in delivering back to back smash hits within four months. What made these songs resonate well with Nigerians was the log of catch phrases which turned to street slangs and two it was built on the in vogue ‘pon pon’ sound.
‘Pere’ by Davido further proves he sucks at making music with foreign appeal. That star studded track produced by DJ Mustard which featured American stars in Swae Lee & Young Thug fell flat. Easy come ‘Pere’ and easy go ‘Pere’ without leaving any tangible memories.

3. OBO Has Been the Most Talked About Music Star This Year

Davido has always found a way to use drama and controversy to drive traction to his music. It’s not the first time and surely he wouldn’t stop any time soon. A wonderful year for David would have been marred with controversies around the death of his friend Tagbo. The music star was roped into the mysterious death of his friend by actress Caroline Danjuma. However the music star won after he was able to clear his name.
Davido will always be Davido as he in fused his predicament into his latest hit ‘FIA’. He manages to call out Caroline  and the police on the buzzing track. Same tactics he used on ‘Bahd Baddo Baddest’, ‘Osinachi’, ‘Summer Body’ etc. ‘FIA’ is already trending as the song has already hit 2 million YouTube views in just about a week of it’s release. A big take away from the song is a line ‘if you no get money hide your face’.
So far this year as far as African/Nigerian music is concerned Davido has done the much better than his closest rival. He has been able to churn out 3 hits out of the four singles he has released so far this year. This is the biggest conversion rate for any Nigerian artiste ahead of other big names like Wizkid, Olamide.

4. Meanwhile

Wizkid’s biggest song this year is ‘Come Closer’ featuring Drake. The song although a hit on an international scale did not rock Nigeria and Africa as much as ‘IF’ & ‘FALL’.
Wizkid dropped his long awaited album ‘Sounds From The Other Side’ (SFTOS) in June but the buzz around the LP faded off in two weeks. Nobody remembers any song off that album besides ‘Come Closer’. ‘IF’, ‘Fall’ looks far better than SFTOS!
Up till date Wizkid has not shot any other video off the album besides ‘Come Closer’ ‘Sweet Love’ & ‘Daddy Yo‘ which were earlier released as singles.
The star boy has tried out the ‘pon Pon’ sound he mocked and failed at it. Who remembers these singles from Wizkid ‘Medicine’, ‘Odoo’ and ‘Everytime’ featuring Future?
Davido is the real MVP in regards to Nigerian and African music in 2017.