by Lekan Olanrewaju

Just a few days ago, popular musician, 22-year-old Wizkid granted an interview where he stated that he wasn’t threatened by relative newcomer Davido, the 19-year-old upstart currently wrapping the music industry round his young finger.

Regardless of the fact the market is more than big enough for both of them, we’ve decided to pit the young stars against each other—on LCD, at least. The guys are similar on many fronts: they both share a knack for churning out addictive tunes, have both experienced a rocket ride to the top of the game, have legions of adoring (mostly female) fans from dreamy-eyed teenagers to grown-and-sexy cougars, wear similar crotch-strangling pants, and exude the same frenetic energy on stage. They are rough around the edges and always get the party started with their floor-filling songs.

Despite their relatively young ages, they have had explosive success across the country (and may even be encroaching onto the world stage) and now Y! wants to know who is truly top puppy.

 

Hit Songs

This could be said to be the easiest comparison to make. However, in a case where both musicians have released some of the most addictive tunes in recent years, it’s hard to declare an easy winner. On one hand we have Davido, who had girls washing him “like omo”, and still has everyone singing ‘Dami Duro’ .

[audio:http://static.ynaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Davido-Dami-Duro.mp3|titles=Davido-Dami-Duro]

On the other, there’s Wizzy, whose songs like ‘Holla at Your Boy’, ‘Tease Me’, and ‘Pakurumo’, have been anthems for the past two years.

[audio:http://www.hulkshare.com/dl/jq2nhphuj8yb/wizkid-pakurumo.mp3|titles=Wizkid-Pakurumo]

Winner? We say Wizkid. It’s slightly a case of quantity over quality, really. ‘Dami Duro’ and ‘Back When’ may be ridiculously catchy and may continue to set the clubs on fire, but Wizkid has carried out a steady assault on the industry for quite a while now, attacking with one earworm after another.

 

Scandal

‘Go hard or go home’ goes the saying, and these guys have certainly taken that adage to heart when it comes to the scandal-brewing they have been up to. You’re nobody till you’re front page news, and these guys have definitely carried their share of tabloid/blog headlines.

The Starboy has had his own healthy dollop of scandals, starting off with the controversy over his “sexy” ‘Tease Me’ video. Then came the rumours of a baby mama. And who can forget the purported sex tape? Quite a lot for such a young chap.

Davido on the other hand, despite his relative newness, seems to want to play catch up. First off there was all the talk about “scantily clad” females in his ‘Dami Duro’ video, then there was the Sonia “photographednakedinbedwithgroupie” debacle, and then of course there was the daggering video…

Winner? It’s close, but Davido takes this round. The daggering may be nothing more than something to poke fun at, and theoretically, a video should trump pictures, but seeing as it wasn’t Wizkid in the sex tape, we’ve gotta hand this one to Davido. Pictures of a half-naked star in bed with a female and the sheer speed in which his scandals started popping out the woodwork, earns him first place this round. Shout out to Sonia, by the way.

 

Fashion

Neither of these young men are going to find their way onto a best dressed list in GQ anytime soon. This isn’t to say, of course, that they are terrible dressers or anything of the sort. Far from it, really. They are, however, both pretty hit and miss, and neither of them has yet reached that “make you do a double take, ‘cos the outfit’s so fly” level. And so, this category ends in a tie. Now, get off my lawn.

 

Lyricism

This is a bit of a simple category. Neither is going to win a prize for lyrics of the year, and that’s being very generous to both stars. But no matter how we want to slice it, Wizkid takes this one, if only for never spewing anything as laughably ridiculous as “nananinaninonanana” over several bars.

 

Videos

Can they really take credit for this? They don’t direct their videos, but we’d like to think they have some form of input into their creation. And regardless, they’re in their names anyway. Davido’s pièce de résistance in this category is undoubtedly his ‘Dami Duro’ video.

Directed by Clarence Peters, the video does a wonderful job of capturing perfectly the jubilant and party vibe the song delivers. Wizkid on the other hand, has more to choose from, even though we don’t have to rummage too deep. ‘Pakurumo’ clearly reigns supreme in his videography.

Winner? Wizkid. Hands down. Davido only has two videos to begin with, and even if he had more, chances are they still wouldn’t be able to compete with the sheer ridiculousness of the ‘Pakurumo’ video. The intro, Funke Akindele, the celeb cameos…it’s all pure, unadulterated fun, and perfectly executed genius.

 

Endorsements

There’s no need to get too deep into this. Wizkid has caught the eye of Konvict music and has just signed a deal, but nothing has come out of it yet. It might be easy to give the international hat-tip the clear win, but these are new waters for our local artists and nobody quite knows how all this might turn out. Davido, on the other hand, recently got snatched up as the face of MTN Pulse, and has already received his pay check—which he promptly spent on a new car, rumour has it. It is quite the achievement indeed for an artist so young, regardless of how unimpressive the advertisement campaign happens to be.

And the winner is…

The musician formerly known as “Starboy” himself. Davido may be flying high right now, but he simply hasn’t done enough to be able to compete. Then, there’s the fact that the Wizkid is up in the stratosphere having recently been signed by Akon’s Konvict Music label.

But is it an all-around loss for Davido? Quite the contrary. Let’s wait a little while, and who knows? We might be looking at another young hip-hop upstart looking to make his name in the game and compare him to Davido.

Wizkid shouldn’t get too comfortable.