An up-and-coming Nigerian artiste, Wisekid, has allegedly made N30m monthly since October 2020 by cloning Wizkid’s Made in Lagos album on Apple and Amazon.
According to African Facts Zone, who broke the news on Twitter, the alleged impersonator has raked so much cash from digital stores since he uploaded the cloned album in October 2020.
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, whose real name is Hosea Yohanna, released an album, Lasgidi Made but uploaded Wizkid’s Made In Lagos album with a rearranged tracklist.
He also used another title to deceive streaming platforms’ algorithms.
Reacting to the allegations on Twitter, Wisekid said he did not stream Wizkid’s music. He also claimed that Freeme Digital has been distributing his own songs.
But Freeme Digital, in a statement, denied distributing his music.
It said: “It has come to our notice that an artiste by the name of Wisekid claims to distribute an album titled ‘Lasgidi Made’ with our organization.
“While it is true that he distributes some of his contents through our organisation, we will like to make it categorically clear that the said, ‘Lasgidi Made’ album was not distributed via our platform.
“We will be deleting the rest of Wisekid’s content on our platform and we have informed our legal team to immediately commence investigation on the issue and prosecute the matter to the full extent of the law.”
Reactions
Following the discovery, Wisekid changed his Instagram handle to @Ayaboyofficial .
The latter is also an imitation of Wizkid’s Twitter handle, @wizkidayo.
He also tweets as @wisekidaya.
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Meanwhile, Wizkid’s manager, Jada Pollock, has reacted to the development on Twitter.
She said her team is working round the clock to get the illegal downloads off all streaming platforms.
“RCA have been actively working on taking down the illegal uploads across all digital platforms from yesterday morning. Relating to the fraudulent “Wisekid” account. Thank you Wizkid FC for your dedication and patience. It does not go unnoticed,” she tweeted.
RCA have been actively working on taking down the illegal uploads across all digital platforms from yesterday morning. Relating to the fraudulent “Wisekid” account. Thank you Wizkid FC for your dedication and patience. It does not go unnoticed ✨
— jada.p (@jada3_p) April 7, 2021
singer’s album has been gaining a lot streaming from unsuspecting fans who mistook it for Wizkid’s.
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