A Nigerian musician, Hosea Yohanna better known as Wisekid has allegedly been making millions of Naira by impersonating music star, Wizkid and cloning his songs.
Wisekid has been playing a fast one on many music lovers by uploading a replica of Wizkid’s ‘Made in Lagos’ album on streaming platforms and titled it ‘Lasgidi Made’, leading to a diversion of some traffic to himself.
He allegedly cloned and uploaded Wizkid’s Made in Lagos album on streaming platforms like Apple Music, Amazon, Shazam and Tidal.
Read Also: Fans Agog With Excitement As Wizkid Releases ‘Made In Lagos’ Album Today
He named his own album with a replica tracklist off Wizkid’s album, thereby deceiving unsuspecting music lovers who unknowingly play music from his own album.
Yohanna’s album, which has gone on to amass a total of 9.3 million streams, was brought to the notice of the public when he posted a screenshot of the streaming numbers which he has since deleted.
According to a Twitter account, Africa Facts Zone, Wisekid has been raking in N30 Million naira monthly off the album since October 2020, when Wizkid released his own album.
An Artist named Wisekid has been making N30 million monthly since October 2020 by copying Wizkid’s music on Apple Music & Amazon.
He released an album and named it Lasgidi Made, then copied the names of Wizkid’s songs & albums. Now he is getting a huge chunk of Wizkid’s streams. pic.twitter.com/0KqgDe1oq6
— Africa Facts Zone (@AfricaFactsZone) April 6, 2021
Wisekid earns $73,170 (N30 million) monthly from copying Wizkid’s music.
— Africa Facts Zone (@AfricaFactsZone) April 6, 2021
Wisekid allegedly went as far as copying Wizkid’s social media usernames a s following discovery of his act, he deactivated his Twitter account and changed his Instagram handle to ‘Ayaboyofficial’.
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
Confirming the allegation, a Twitter user, Chemical Brother shared screenshots that showed that after listening to Wizkid’s album for over 26 hours, Apple Music distributed the traffic to both Wizkid and Wisekid.
This guy is an artist scamming off Wizkid’s name and albums. He made a replica of Made in Lagos and uploaded it to music platforms and the streams and sales are being shared to him too. He came to brag about it. pic.twitter.com/LstetQz820
— Chemical Brother 👌 (@chemicalbrodar) April 6, 2021
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
Meanwhile, Wisekid has come out to deny the allegations against him. In a series of post, he denied the accusations and claimed a music company, Freeme Digital has been the one distributing all his songs.
In his words:
I don’t know who do that oo.I just access my apple artist name I saw streams I just wanted to get people check me out nothing more oo. Freeme digital been the one distribute all my songs. Pls I don’t want wahala oo .. I’m just an upcoming artist I know nothing about this and please am not the one distributing wizkid album on apply music. I have my company that distributes my music for me so I know nothing about this news spreading all over the internet. Thank u.
Reacting to this, Freeme digital stated;
We did NOT distribute his ‘Lasgidi Made’ album and have only distributed his old content. We will see him and everyone else involved in this lie and defamation in court.
— Freeme Digital (@freemedigital) April 6, 2021
Despite Yohanna’s action, Wizkid’s Made In Lagos album has surpassed 400 million streams across 5 platforms in 5 months.
