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WIZKID SOUNDZ

Twenty-seven tracks from the Lagos singer who did more than anyone to make African pop a global default rather than a specialist interest.

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Wizkid

Ayodeji Balogun is the most quietly influential African musician of his generation. Where his contemporaries pursued crossover with volume and spectacle, Wizkid's method has been the opposite: his records are soft, unhurried and almost conversationally sung, and they succeeded by changing what international pop was willing to sound like rather than by adapting to it.

His delivery is the key. He sings low in his range, slightly behind the beat, with an almost lazy phrasing that makes even the busiest arrangement feel relaxed. It is a deceptively difficult thing to do and it has been widely imitated.

He came up through the Lagos scene under Banky W's EME label, went independent, and by the end of the 2010s had a Grammy and a global audience.

What to listen for

"Ojuelegba" is the essential track — named after the Lagos neighbourhood he grew up in, and the record that Drake and Skepta remixed in 2015, which is generally regarded as the moment the door opened.

"Come Closer" with Drake is the biggest international record here, and "Caro" with L.A.X is the one Nigerians would name first.

"Sweet Love" and "In My Bed" are the smoothest things in the catalogue, and both show how little he needs to do vocally to carry a song.

"Final (Baba Nla)" is the most triumphant, and "Fool for You" is the most vulnerable.

"Pullover" with KCee and "Tonight" with R2Bees are the earlier collaborations and show how deep the Lagos-Accra traffic already ran.

"Wine to the Top" with Vybz Kartel is the Jamaican link, and "2 Sugar" with Ayra Starr and "Jogodo" with Asake are the later-generation handovers.

"African Bad Gyal" with Chris Brown is the early American attempt, and hearing it next to the later work shows how much the balance of power shifted.

Go deeper

Made in Lagos (2020) is the essential album and one of the defining records of its decade. Superstar (2011) is the debut that made him a star at home.

Burna Boy, Davido, Tems and Asake are the surrounding generation, and Fela Kuti is the ancestor everyone in this music is measured against.

Listening note: the restraint is the technique. He sings low, slightly behind the beat, and almost never pushes, which makes even the busiest arrangement feel unhurried — and which is far harder to sustain than a big vocal. That relaxed delivery is the single most imitated thing in African pop over the past decade.

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