Olayinka Babawale, also known as Wale Applause, who is the ex-manager of Nigerian singer Keshinro Ololade, popularly known as Lil Kesh, has come out wth details of why he was sacked by the singer.
In a lengthy Twitter post on Thursday, Wale who used to work for Olamide during the early days of the rapper’s career said he was making the revelation for upcoming artistes to learn to “never bite the hand that fed you”.
Wale recalled his experience working with Olamide, saying “God bless Baddo, he loved me so much”. He also said God used him and Olamide to make Lil Kesh a star.
On Lil Kesh, Wale said he sacrificed more than two years of his life for the singer to attain the heights he reached.
He wrote: “For the first time, let me say this, I gave over two years of my life to Lil Kesh. I remember well when I will put all my friends on the road, all the way from Sango to Elegushi to push ‘Shoki’. God bless my friend DJ Consequence; he knows the story. There were many days I had to sleep in my rickety Honda; days my friends Aspen and the gang will go to the club to spend money just so ‘Shoki’ can be played; those days when all that mattered to me was raising a king. Alas! HE SACKED ME.
“Here is the reason why I got sacked the first time. I cannot be very specific about the time, but it was when ‘Shoki’ and ‘Dorobucci’ were blowing at the same time. My sources said to me that Don Jazzy had gone to lobby the MTV base award for Dorobucci and Reekado Banks was going to come on stage to get the award. I was told that what that translated to was that Reekado Banks was going to win Next Rated at the Headies. I had worked so hard than to make that happen. Now we had ‘Shoki’, ‘Gbese’, ‘Efejoku’.
“I tried my best but i was just one person. Alas! ‘Dorobucci’ won the award and just as told, Reekado Banks was on stage to get it. I went bonkers. Abfresh, who was to later manage Lil Kesh just got back from UK at the time and was staying at my place. I was so sad. I went on Twitter and rant. I did rant and mention Don Jazzy well. Then I called Olamide’s attention to my tweets, told him i was sorry it was just a moment of madness. I had rights to be angry. I got a shocker the next day when Olamide told me I wouldn’t manage Lil Kesh again because of a twitter rant from someone like me, only for him to go on the stage at the Headies to declare Lil Kesh Winner himself. I am sure we all remember how that went. I remember watching the Headies in my father’s house in Ibadan as I was jobless. I cried when Lil Kesh wasn’t given the award, I wanted him to win it for me. I thought my night was bad enough, not until Olamide came on stage to rant and I started wailing. My parents could not console me. I was wailing because all I did was rant on Twitter and I became jobless for several months; Olamide goes on stage to disorganise a well-organised award and he is tagged a hero even by himself. This pot of beans life.”
The manager also took out time to throw shades at DJ Spinall.
“About the DJs, I will mention one DJ you do not need when your career is budding or trying to germinate. YOU DO NOT NEED DJ SPINALL. If you work with him, you would hate yourself. Forget the hype, when you blow, he will come kissing your a**. He is usually like that; only a good person on social media. Also, if and when you are a celebrity/as an artiste manager and new artiste, avoid DJ Spinall like a plague.
“As I look to conclude this part, be careful of people like Osi, Spinall, etc. They make your clients perceive you like a thief, because they will collect your money and not play the song,” he wrote.
He further advised artiste managers to learn to fight for themselves.
