‘You only got one shot you can’t miss your chance to blow because opportunity comes but once in a lifetime’

These lyrics from Eminem’s Lose Yourself resonate with Nigerian musicians that seized their opportunity, came from nowhere and found their way into our musical subconscious.

These are 4 Nigerian artistes who had a quick rise to fame in the past 5 years.

1. Sean Tizzle
In March 2013, word got out that D’tunes had left Iyanya‘s MMMG after setting up his own record label called Difference Entertainment.

Industry insiders were puzzled as to what happened.

Well Morihanfen Oluwaseun Oluwabamidele aka Sean Tizzle happened.

D’tunes appeared to have known that this young man had the star power in him and all he just had to do was bring it out.

Sean Tizzle who was signed to Sound Sultan‘s Naija Ninjas had not released any major single, however it was reported Sound Sultan had written the Sho lee hit for ‘Sean’ as he was called back then.

Coupled with D Tunes’ midas touch which worked for Iyanya, Sean Tizzle released Sho Lee as his first single under Difference entertainment on February 22, 2013.

Although it didn’t get so much radio rotation at first, the song started to grow on people by April as the demand boomed.

Disc Jockeys also caught the wave as every party no matter how small it was, Played the hit song on repeat.

The music video for ‘Sho Lee’, shot in Lagos and directed by Unlimited L.A was released in April and the singer’s career shot up from then on.

The song went on to be nominated for Song of the Year at the Headies that year which it lost to the eventual winner, Limpopo by KCee.

It however earned Sean Tizzle and D’tunes the next rated act and the producer of the year awards respectively on the night.

This, in itself was a remarkable feat as no one had gone from total obscurity to superstar in such a short time

Sean Tizzle went on to sign a 20 million Naira endorsement deal with telecommunications giant, MTN in April 2014 in addition to his mouth-watering deal with Barcardi Breezer that same year.

 

Subsequently, he released his debut album The Journey to much critical acclaim with hits such as Mama Eh, Komole, Kilogbe and Kilogbe (Remix) featuring Olamide and Reminisce.

 

2. Kiss Daniel

Anidugbe Oluwatobiloba Daniel, known as Kiss Daniel is another artiste who had a quick rise to fame.

During the year, 2014-2015, Kiss Daniel went from just a graduate of Water Resources Management and Agrometeorology (Water Engineering) to scoring back to back hits and award nominations.

It’s a hard nut to crack on how this 21-year-old did it but with hits such as Woju, Woju (Remix) featuring Tiwa Savage and Davido, as well as Laye, he won the hearts of many across the country and beyond.

Kiss Daniel launched his album – New Era few Sundays back and it is receiving rave reviews.

 

3. Davido

‘E Ma Dami Duro emi omo baba olowo’

In 2012, almost every Nigerian was synonymous with that famous chorus by Davido in Dami Duro.

Davido had finally proved his father Chief Deji Adeleke wrong and made him proud at the same time. All the running away from school in America and disappearing for months to chase his passion had paid off.

Davido got back into the country in 2011 and was reportedly apprehended by the Police on the instruction of  his father who had been looking for a him for a while.

They, however, then came to a conclusion that he would get a professional degree in a University in Nigeria while he pursued music simultaneously.

Along with his elder brother Adewale Adeleke, Davido formed the HKN record label.

Then the singer released Back When featuring Naeto C, one of the top acts at the time along with a video directed by Clarence Peters.

This introduced him to the market but nothing beat what was to come on October 30, 2011 when he released Dami Duro and the country, the continent took notice of this America returnee.

This was a song he said in a NotJustOK interview was recorded in August 2011 and was leaked three months later after he sent it out to some friends.

With the video directed by Clarence Peters coming out on on January 8, 2012, Dami Duro launched his career to unimaginable heights and changed his life forever.

Dami Duro went on to claim the Hottest Single of the Year at the 2012 Nigeria Entertainment Awards. It was however nominated for Best Pop Single and Song of The Year at the 2012 Headies which it lost.

With his billionaire father seeing the potential his son had, he bankrolled his musical projects, amongst which is the reported 10 million Naira studio he built for Davido at home.

Davido then started shooting quality music videos abroad for his follow up singles such as Ekuro, Overseas and so on.

This set the tone for the release of his critically acclaimed debut album – Omo Baba Olowo (O.B.O) : The Genesis in the summer of 2012.

Just before his album release, on April 6, 2012, Davido signed a reported 30 million endorsement deal with MTN to become the new face of a new marketing campaign called MTN Pulse.

He won the Next rated award at the Headies 2012 and Omo Baba Olowo (O.B.O) : The Genesis bagged the Best R&B album for his debut effort at the Headies the following year.

In just 2 years, Davido became a mega superstar.

 

4. Lil Kesh

Lil Kesh will forever be thankful to Olamide for giving him the platform to show the world what he has to offer.

Born from the same Bariga-hood where the YBNL CEO grew up, Lil Kesh was a good dancer who took interest in music after watching some of his peers rap.

He caught the attention of Olamide when his single titled Lyrically was buzzing all around Nigerian Universities. Olamide then decided to sign Lil Kesh in 2014 after Viktoh who was already signed to YBNL at the time had played the song for him.

Lil Kesh’s indigenous lyrics, delivery and flow, won Olamide over as he saw a young him in the University of Lagos student at the time.

Lil Kesh then dropped Shoki in late March 2014 and it did quite decent commercially, however it rose to prominence when Davido hopped on the remix alongside Olamide in July that year.

Things even got better when Davido shared his set on the Channel O awards with Lil Kesh to perform Shoki remix on Africa’s biggest stage.

In that moment, Lil Kesh took a Nigerian street anthem and made it a continental banger.

He followed it up with singles like Gbese, Efejoku and Ladi featuring Olamide and Phyno – a track where he out-muscled the two indigenous heavyweights.

The industry became convinced that Lil Kesh was destined to shine.