Olamide’s Move To Banana Island Signals Ambition Beyond Music- Insiders

It has been confirmed that music star Olamide Adedeji is now a resident of billionaires’ haven, Banana Island.

Those who should know, however, disclosed that the move is not the ultimate for the sensational lyricist who famously adopted his personal name, Olamide, as his stage identity.

“It is part of a larger plot to thread and establish himself in a circle most entertainers shy away from stepping into,” sources say.

Banana Island is the exclusive preserve of the nation’s wealthiest and most powerful, including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Mike Adenuga, the founder of telecommunications giant, Globacom.

Olamide, who rose from humble beginnings in Bariga—a low-class social strata area—moved to the billionaires’ haven not just to cement ties with his sponsors, but to become one of them.

“That is what he is working on. It is audacious, but that is the ambition he is quietly putting in place brick by brick,” according to those familiar with the ways of the singer, also known as Baddo.

Checks revealed that the norm is usually for entertainers and service providers from humble backgrounds to move to highbrow areas as part of positioning to ensure streams of premium fees.

But Olamide, who defied the odds to fight off the larger-than-life shadows of the late Dagrin to become one of the most influential figures in new-generation rap, clearly wants more than that.

One of the first indigenous rappers to shut down high-profile venues like Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, with live concerts, Olamide wants to be one of the real powers—beyond music.

The CEO (Chief Executive Omota) Oladapo Olaitan Olanipekun, better known as Dagrin, was the next big thing in indigenous rap music before his death in a car crash on April 22, 2010.

Olamide’s emergence on the scene around the same time was met with strong comparisons to Dagrin, but his eyes-on-the-ball approach helped him soar far above expectations. His record label, YBNL (Yahoo Boy No Laptop), became the dream destination for even established artistes.

It has also helped that Baddo has been immensely—but quietly—generous in helping more than a handful of artistes rise to fame with no strings attached, a move that has created a formidable web of goodwill among entertainers and fans.

“So, it is only logical that what he is doing now is the next step for him,” a source disclosed.