The Nigerian music industry has seen a whole lot of underground talent get the attention they deserve, say CKay, but an artiste blowing up just after having the worst negative PR in a year? Never. That is the story of Oxlade
Newsonline presents you with a detailed timeline of the Oxlade come up story. For a lot of people Oxlade started only when Ku lo sa blew up, but Oxlade has been around since we all knew FireBoy. Infact they were both hustling together before Fireboy got signed into YBNL.
What happened? Fireboy and Oxlade had a song out together before they were fully inducted into the industry titled “Sing”. On the Sing, they both declare that they just want to sing, they then discuss how they all blowing up one after the other.
Weeks later, Fireboy got signed to YBNL, while Oxlade got a management deal with Bizzle Osikoya’s The Plug, before proceeding to sign a publishing, distribution and licensing deal with The Plug Entertainment. He also got to perform at Davido’s Lagos concert in 2018 and opened for Wizkid at the O2 in 2019, all these happened while he was signed to a relativley unknow record label, Troniq Music.
Oxlade first gained industry acclaim after he featured on Blaqbonez 2018 song “Mamiwota“, a song that had music heads on chockhold, his expansive delivery on the hook was what captured Bizzle’s attention. Oxlade, then proceeded to release an EP, in 2019. The Oxygene EP, had a lot of crazy songs, the one that stoodout the most was Away, a song that captured the attention of Canadian rapper Drake. “Away” appeared at number 23 on the Nigerian TurnTable Top 50 year-end chart of 2020. He then released “DKT” independently on 3 September 2020 and its music video on 10 May 2021, which was shot and directed by Dammy Twitch
After the success of his EP, he was sought after by every rapper in the industry to drop his fire hooks, he worked on Ice Prince’s 2021 hit song KOLO, which spent eighteen consecutive weeks on chart, and peaked at number eight on TurnTable Top 50 weekly chart.
The Controversy: The first controversial moment for Oxlade came On 12 October 2020, Oxlade was injured during the EndSARS protest in Surulere, a commercial area in Lagos. Residents and fellow protesters reported the situation with the hashtag #EndSARS, with a video clip of Oxlade manager Ojah’B, who was seen being beaten as police violently shut down the protest. This, although bad wasn’t the worst of the twists in his music career.
The devil striked again on 8 February 2022, when a sex tape of Oxlade’s was leaked from Snapchat, and became a trending topic on Twitter. On 10 February 2022, the woman featured in the video publicly disclosed her intention to sue Oxlade for 20 million naira. On 12 February 2022, Oxlade apologized on Twitter to his fans and the woman in the video
Global Blow up/ Superstar status: On 10 June 2022, he released “Ku Lo Sa”, for ColorsxStudios. Following its release, a live-performing video was released on Colors YouTube channel, which has received over 1 million YouTube streams as of July 14, 2022. On 19 June 2022, it debuted at number 11 on the Official Afrobeats Chart Top 20 chart, and reached number 8 on 10 July 2022, exactly one month after its initial release. On 11 July 2022, it debuted at number 66 on TurnTable Nigeria Top 100 chart. On 13 July 2022, Oxlade was named the first Pandora Africa’s Next Artist. During their discussion, he talked about the constant surge of emerging artists in Nigeria and making a name for himself in America, Afro pop, and his growth as one of the fast-rising talents out of Africa. Following this, he performed “Want You” for Pandora Africa’s Next Radio.
The superstar, was recently brought out at another Wizkid show, but this time in Paris. He performed Ku Lo Sa for thousands of crowd. The performance was described as the highlight of the entire show.
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Writer’s review: One thing for sure is that, Oxlade’s vocal capacity and expansiveness is second to none on the afrobeat scene. The joy of it all is not that he has that vocal capacity, the joy is that he likes to utilize it, unlike most of our other vocally blessed singers.
Oxlade’s Future: Just like Burna Boy who came to steal the midas touch from two of the juicest singers to ever do Afrobeats- Davido and Wizkid, Oxlade is sure to be another top gun that virtually no one saw coming, but Bizzle and the Plug family, he grew into an investable superstar who labels will now die to have.
