Davido is one of those names that has been accused of encouraging Payola and the singer does not exactly deny it.
He has expressed his views about Payola in a recent interview with The Native Magazine.
During the course of the conversation with the magazine, Davido responded to the accusations that have come his way in his typical direct manner, stating, ”Music is an investment. Anywhere in the world, if you want to blow you have to spend money.
But If you like have one billion dollars, if the music no sweet, e no go work” he added.
It will be recalled that earlier this year, in a separate interview with Ms Uduak of The Africa Music Law Show, media personality and TV host, Emma Ugolee had called out several artists including Davido for making payola as viable as it is in the industry today.
In his words, ”Payola has ruined a large level of the industry’… I tell D’banj and Don Jazzy, these are the first two people who turned it around.
It was starting to grow slowly but when these boys came in from London, they turned it all around.
They now started carving designer bags, giving to presenters, bringing huge sums of money and then you know they were changing Pounds to Naira, putting it in the pockets of these presenters.
Presenters didn’t want to hear anything else but Mo Hits at the time.
Continuing, he revealed that, ”Now that went on until the new crop of youngsters also came in and just totally took it to a different level.
I am talking about Kcee Limpopo, I am talking about Davido, I am talking EME, at this point, these ones now moved on to bringing laptops, designer clothings… the guys at Five Star Music were known to have given cars to some presenters”, he concluded.
Payola has been a contentious industry debate not just in Nigeria but internationally, and has grown into a prominent fibre of the music structure.
Source: News Agencies
