“Wizkid started as a ‘studio rat’, coined the name ‘Wiz’” – Banky W

Music executive, Banky W opens up on how the Grammy-winning singer, Wizkid started from scratch and built his music career into one of the biggest brands ever.

In a video making rounds online, Banky W reminisced about his early days with the artist, whom he signed to his label, Empire Mates Entertainment (EME), long before Wizkid established his label, StarBoy Entertainment.

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Banky W recalled Wizkid’s relentless dedication to music, describing him as a “studio rat” who struggled financially, barely affording studio time but making up for it with hours spent honing his craft in any studio that would let him stay.

Sharing the origin of the stage name, the musician turned politician revealed that the singer’s name “Wiz” was coined from being the fastest songwriter he had ever encountered.

“Wizkid for a long time in his life was not fortunate enough to afford or pay for studio time and so he was a studio rat as he will go to any studio where they will let him hang out and he would hang out all day and just wait, hope and pray for the end of the day for the engineers and producers to just take pity on him and say oya, come, come and record for 15 mins or 30 mins because he could not pay for his session.

“So, all day long, he would be working on hooks and melodies and just coming up with things in case he was given the opportunity to jump on the mic for five minutes. He did not have time to think about what to write at the moment, so that became his process.

“And now he is one of the fastest songwriters that I have ever encountered in my life, he will just sit, listen, and listen to music, he would start freestyling a melody that would become a song that the whole world would want to sing and that is where the name Wiz started from, his genius-level creation of melodies is at the spur of the moment.”