Top 5 international collaborations from Africa in 2015

All eyes are currently on Wizkid for his marvellous collaboration with Drake and Skepta on the remix of ‘Ojuelegba’.

The song which was released last year as the best single off Wizkid’s ‘Ayo (Joy)’ album has had a lot of remixes, but this one leads them all the best so far.

But away from that, this year has not exactly been lacking in international superstar-dust. We have had massive collaborations fly in thick from all corners. Many are even unreleased. Wizkid has a song with Chris Brown, Davido has a single with Trey Songz, and Praiz is on a feature with an undisclosed US Hip hop rapper.

While these songs are still to make their way through the studio and into our playlists, Pulse puts together top 5 international collaborations that have made it to the African public.

Wizkid – ‘Ojuelegba’ ft Drake, Skepta

  Wizkid's hit song, 'Ojuelegba' has a remix with Drake and Skepta.
(Press)

Of course the song of the moment gets the most prized slot. The song was not a product of endless hours of planning and masterful orchestration. It was time and chance, which brought it to life.

Tech giants, Apple has launched their potential game-changing streaming service, Apple Music, which also contains a radio service. In a bid to make it go viral as a bonafide paid music streaming solution, they had signed up a number of international stars to host shows. Drake is one of them.

The ‘6 God’ owns a show titled OVO Sounds, on which he plays songs, premieres new materials, showcases special feature music, and generally gives a unique angle to the Apple service.

During the Wireless Music Festival which held at the London earlier this month, Skepta who is a friend and fan of Wizkid, played the song for Drake, who fell in love and made a remix. The song got a premiere on Apple Music, shutting down the internet with downloads and conversations.

Davido – ‘Fans mi’ ft Meek Mill

  Davido is a crime boss in 'Fans mi' with Meek Mill
(Youtube)

Before Drake extended his blessings to Wizkid, Davido was the singer with the envious eyes on him. The graduate of Babcock University is working towards the release of his sophomore album, ‘Baddest’, and it contains a number of hit songs.

Top of the pile so far is Meek Mill’s effort on the single, ‘Fans Mi’. The song possesses shock value and an exquisite video which Davido calls out as being the most expensive of his career so far. It was shot by Sesan Ogunro, and features interesting scenes of a drug sale gone wrong.

Sarkodie – ‘New guy’ ft Ace Hood

  Sarkodie and Ace Hood's collaboration had controversy as a side attraction.
(Youtube)

Controversy, controversy, and more controversy gave birth to this song. Sarkodie, needing a bit of a special hit song, made the journey to the US where he got connected to Hip hop artiste, Ace Hood.

The collaboration was done, and voila, the controversy kicked in. Sarkodie said Ace Hood reached out. Ace Hood got disrespected and revealed something interesting: He got $25k for his verses on the song.

Even after the video was released, the final verse still kept alive the fun with ‘needless’ bromance and narcissism.

“Ace… lemme take you to Africa, My people they love you. I came here, you showed me some love
And i promise to build you a statue, uh!”

Sarkodie really was grateful and he conveyed it lyrically. Such a class act, this guy.

Psquare – ‘Bring it on’ ft Dave Scott

  Africa's biggest duo, teams up with Dave Scott for this single off their ‘Double Trouble’ album.
(Youtube)

When Psquare went through the trouble of releasing a new album in September 2014 named ‘Double Trouble’, few people payed special attention to the third track.

‘Bring it on’ features an unknown singer, Dave Scott, who had a chance meeting with Peter and Paul Okoye. That meeting resulted in studio time, and with a rich Southern accent, the singer whipped up a good contribution to an inspirational track.

The song was officially made a single in 2015, with a motivational video released. Dave Scott is really a good find.

Yemi Alade – Kissing’ (French version) ft Marvin

  Yemi Alade and Marvin act the character of love birds who go through moments of passion, as they sing to, and for each other in the ambient beauty of the French capital.
(Effyzzie Music Group)

Yemi Alade who won the award for “Best West African Act” at the 2015 Kunde Awards in Burkina Faso unleashed the lovely music video for the latest single, 'Kissing (remix)' which features Afro-Caribbean music star Marvin.

The pair act the character of love birds who go through moments of passion, as they sing to, and for each other in the ambient beauty of the French capital.

The world-class clip directed by Ovie Etseyatse and co-directed by Taiye Aliyu was shot in Paris, France during Yemi Alade’s “King of Queens” European tour.

The Effyzzie Music Group singer in a press statement when she arrived back to Nigeria from Burkina Faso said; “The music video was conceptualized and shot in barely 48 hours; my team called Ovie and he flew into Paris, before we knew it, it was a wrap… I hope you guys love it just as you loved the video for the original song which was created by Sesan”.