Welcome to our Artist Focus for the week and the focus of our lens today is Adewale Mayowa Emmanuel a.k.a Mayorkun. The 27-year-old DMW pop star and son of Nollywood actress Toyin Adewale is curating an amazing career for himself with hit after hit and we explore his journey so far.
Mayorkun studied Accounting at the University of Lagos & started working as a banker in September 2015 after completing his NYSC but did not find fulfillment in the job. He visited his cousin’s place in January 2016 and when he realized they had a keyboard, he started performing. After performing numerous songs, he decided on the song that would change his life.
Around February 2016, a young Mayorkun uploaded a video covering Davido and Olamide’s monster hit “The Money”. It got major buzz across social media platforms with people asking the DMW boss to notice the starlet. Davido followed him on Instagram and Twitter and asked him to send in something different.
He sent a couple of “poor recordings” to Davido but his talent was undeniable and Davido promised him a contract when he got back from Atlanta.
When Davido requested to see Mayorkun, the Mayor of Lagos did not have the fare to make the journey and promised the cabman a chance to meet Davido and receive payment at the gate. When they arrived, Davido was nowhere to be found at first. But when the dust settled, they had their meeting. Mayorkun was signed to Davido Music Worldwide (DMW).
Since then – to borrow from the words of @JoeyAkan – he has rarely placed a musical foot in the wrong spot.
His first release under his new label was “Eleko” and it was a smash hit. A song that was made on Davido’s living room table. It garnered over a million views on YouTube in 10 days prompting popular music critic Osagie Alonge to go on a rant about buying views.
“How come you from nowhere, you drop your video and you hit a million views, fam it is not possible. Don’t call a dog a monkey for us.” – Osagie Alonge, May 2016
The video currently has 7.6 million views on YouTube. Alongside Davido, they promoted the song to its very last seconds, performing it majorly at school shows. He followed it up with “Yawa” but it failed to live up to his debut single “Love you tire” featuring breakout star of the year Mr Eazi. It was the follow-up hit he desired.
Mayorkun won the 2016 Headies Award for Rookie of the year. He covered Nonso Amadi’s “Tonight” in 2017 before releasing “Sade”. His next single “Mama” established him as a true superstar in the Nigerian music industry. It was produced by Kiddominant and the video was directed by the legendary Clarence Peters.
Towards the end of 2017, Mayorkun followed it up with “Che Che”, another smash hit to his name. He had the cumulative hits now and he needed to solidify his status with a full project. In 2018, Mayorkun released three more singles to introduce the album. “Bobo”, “Fantasy”, and “Posh” were released to commercial success.
He featured on his label’s group efforts “Mind” and “Aje”. Later in the year, he picked up the much-coveted Next Rated Award at the 2018 Headies Award ceremony. He won the prize ahead of Dice Ailes, Zoro, Maleek Berry, and Johnny Drille. Mayorkun dedicated the award to his boss Davido.
Mayorkun announced his debut album The Mayor of Lagos and it was released on the 16th of November, 2018. The 14-track project was solid and earned him two more Headies Awards at the 2019 edition. Best R&B/Pop Album & Hip Hop World Revelation.
In 2019, he released the last single from the album titled “Sope”. “Tire” came in April but he saved the best for last. He released “Up to something” late in November and started an incredible streak that does not seem to be coming to an end anytime soon.
Mayorkun started 2020 with the mega-hit “Geng” and then released another monster hit titled “Of Lagos” amid the heights of the global pandemic. It was produced by Fresh VDM. It achieved a lot of success on the social media platform TikTok. Davido released A Better Time towards the end of 2020 and one of the major bops of the album was a collaboration with Mayorkun titled “The Best”.
It was an anthem. Mayorkun posted a clip of his verse on Twitter a day after the release and Davido showed appreciation for his star. Mayorkun released another major hit “Your Body” to round out the year and maintain his hot streak.
In 2021, he was featured alongside Busiswa on the remix of Zinoleesky’s hit single “Kilofeshe”. He was also featured on Cho Cho by Zlatan Ibile alongside Davido.
Mayorkun’s hot streak continues as he continues to drop hit after hit. He can identify a wave, surf it early enough and move on to the next best thing. It is a style that has worked and continues to work for him. His unproblematic nature and openness endear him to his fans.
He is popularly dubbed the King of Snapchat for his knowledgeable use of the social media app. The Mayor of Lagos is gifted, versatile, and smart about his music doings. Here’s to more hits and more table-topping jams.
Of lay lay lay lay ...of Lagos!!!
