You know him as the legend that gave us jams like Bobo, started one of the most prominent record labels in Nigeria: YBNL; gave Adekunle Gold, Lil Kesh, Asake, Fireboy and more a start with their music careers, and always delivers superb verses when he’s tapped for a song feature; but you probably didn’t know that Olamide is also an amazing songwriter who co-wrote some of your favorite artists hit songs. Olamide, fondly called Baddo, is an artist who has refused to be confined to one thing; he’s a rapper, songwriter, music executive and more. While he doesn’t make a big deal about it, Olamide has been the go-to person for a lot of his counterparts in search of hit singles because of his incredible pen game and adaptability.
Whether he’s putting you on by featuring you on his albums like he did for Fave, Layydoe, Bella Shmurda and Bad Boy Timz or he’s hopping on a remix of your single, Olamide has always been about helping others in the music industry succeed—songwriting is also one the ways he expresses that part of himself.
In this article, we look at 7 songs you didn’t know YBNL boss Olamide either wrote or co-wrote for his fellow artists.
Bottom – Akon
Senegalese-American singer, Akon, released his second studio album, Akonda, in October 2019. Bottom, the fourth song on it, caught a great deal of attention because of Akon’s singing in pidgin and Yoruba language. After the song’s release, speculations that the song was composed by rapper, songwriter and record label executive, Olamide, began to emerge. Those speculations were later confirmed when a Twitter user, Solomon Ford, wrote, “Olamide wrote Bottom for Akon. We don’t deserve this legend.” Olamide replied with a praying hand emoji essentially confirming the speculations.
49-99 – Tiwa Savage
One of the most interesting fun facts that Tiwa Savage revealed when she had a Genius interview for her song 49-99 was that the song was actually written by Olamide. According to Tiwa Savage, most of the song was already done before she even heard it. However, she revealed that she added herself to it and changed some things, but for the most part, the record was already ready from the brilliant mind that is Olamide.
Cho Cho – Zlatan ft. Mayorkun and Davido
Upon the release of Zlatan’s banger, Cho Cho featuring Mayorkun and Davido, the latter took to his Instagram Live to celebrate the song’s release as well as to thank Olamide for lending his pen to the creation of the song. Davido’s revelation of Olamide’s involvement came as a shock to many fans who were surprised to find out that Olamide co-wrote the single. Olamide also played a huge role in bringing Zlatan into the limelight in the early days of his career.
Injure Me – Teni
Injure Me, the eighth track on Teni’s debut album Wondaland, was also co-written by Olamide. The information can be found on Spotify and the song’s official YouTube data page, which also listed Moses Kayode Phillips (Pheelz), the producer of the song, as one of the writers alongside Olamide. Injure Me was one of the better performing songs off the Wondaland album and Olamide’s contribution was undeniably a plus for Teni.
Owo Mi Da – Tiwa Savage
Once again, Tiwa Savage enlisted Olamide’s songwriting prowess on another song. Olamide played a very important role in Tiwa Savage’s 2019 run following her exit from Mavin Records. He was responsible for co-writing 2 (49-99 & Owo Mi Da) out of the 3 singles that Tiwa Savage released in 2019 under Universal Music.
Palazzo – Spinall ft. Asake
Spinall and Asake’s Palazzo is one song that had 2022 in a chokehold and Olamide is credited as a writer on the record. Even before confirming that Palazzo was among the songs Olamide co-wrote, it was almost a no brainer that he contributed to the record because of the Olamide vibe it had. While Olamide himself hasn’t publicly said anything about co-writing the song, it is easy to confirm by checking the song’s credits on Spotify.
My Love – Wale
According to BMI, the official registration point of music where most songs’ metadata is listed, Olamide is credited as one of the writers/composers of Wale’s hit song My Love featuring British-Albanian artiste Dua Lipa, and Nigerian superstar Wizkid. Olamide’s involvement on this record reasserts the versatile nature of the indigenous rapper.