- “He [Wizkid] could be somebody like Bob Marley, [who] emerged from Jamaica, and represents a pocket of music that suddenly everybody gets,” – RCA Chairman and CEO Peter Edge.
- “We believe Wizkid is going to be that artist – he makes music for everybody.” – said Edge
Sony is battling an online leak of the follow up to Drake and Wizkid’s global smash One Dance – after a new song titled ‘Hush Up The Silence (Come Closer)’ appeared on major hip-hop media websites over the weekend.
The track, credited as a Wizkid song featuring Drake, looks likely to be a planned lead single from Nigerian act Wizkid – aka Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun.
Wizkid signed to Sony’s RCA for what was said to be a seven-figure deal towards the end of last year after featuring on One Dance, the first track in history to top 1bn streams on Spotify.
Hush Up The Silence (Come Closer) appeared alongside enthusiastic write-ups on sites including Complex and XXL on Saturday.
These articles included an embedded SoundCloud link, which has since been deleted. Some listeners have suggested that the track sounded like an unmastered cut of the song.
Elsewhere, sites are claiming that IFPI, on behalf of Sony, subsequently demanded a takedown of links to the leaked track, in a statement which read:
- “We have learned that your service is making available, distributing and/or referring/linking users to infringing copies of the following sound recordings, the copyrights in which are exclusively owned or controlled by one or more IFPI Represented Companies. We are asking for your immediate assistance in stopping this unauthorised activity.”
- “YOUR SERVICE IS MAKING AVAILABLE INFRINGING COPIES OF COPYRIGHTS WHICH ARE EXCLUSIVELY OWNED OR CONTROLLED BY ONE OR MORE IFPI REPRESENTED COMPANIES. WE ARE ASKING FOR YOUR IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE IN STOPPING THIS UNAUTHORISED ACTIVITY.”
IFPI STATEMENT
In more positive news, a rudimentary search for ‘Hush Up The Silence (Come Closer)’ on the usual platforms shows it’s currently tough to come by.
That’s especially true on YouTube – where you’d assume Sony is being vigilant with takedowns.
However, there are still plenty of lyric videos and ‘reviews’ of the track available on Google’s video site, while the transcribed lyrics are up on Genius.
One Dance, by Drake feat. Wizkid and Kyla Reid, was released in April 2016 via Young Money/Universal.
It went on to spend 12 weeks at the top of the Billboard 100, and 15 weeks at No.1 on the UK’s Official Singles Chart – so you might expect Sony to emulate such a release pattern.
Wizkid id hugely popular artist in his home country of Nigeria with two studio albums under his belt before signing to Sony last year.
He’s just finished recording his major label debut, Sounds From The Other Side.
RCA Chairman and CEO Peter Edge recently told MBW Wizkid has the potential to be a “world beating artist”.
“He could be somebody like Bob Marley, [who] emerged from Jamaica, and represents a pocket of music that suddenly everybody gets,” said Edge.
“We believe Wizkid is going to be that artist – he makes music for everybody.”
