Rapper CDQ has thrown Nigerian hip hop into another argument after ranking himself above some of the scene’s biggest names and declaring that, musically, the conversation ends with him. The comments came on Faloh Frequency where he also recalled knowing Wizkid as a schoolmate long before either man became a star.
CDQ, whose real name is Sodiq Abubakar Yusuf, said he was not even watching Olamide closely in those early days. His attention was on the classmate who would later become Starboy.
“I wasn’t paying attention to Olamide then so I didn’t know him. I only knew Wizkid then because we were schoolmates in LASU before he went to Lead City. We used to chill at the restaurant at the Arcade together. I had a good relationship with him.”
That campus friendship, he said, put him close enough to hear Wizkid weigh his first major label options.
“Even when he was about to sign with Banky W, he told me he had options. He said MoHits —Don Jazzy and DBanj— and MI also wanted to sign him because he had already don some hot songs by then. He chose Banky W because he offered more money. I just wished him all the best then.”
The interview turned sharper when the host asked him to pick between Blaqbonez and other rappers, starting with Odumodublvck. CDQ refused to flatten music and personality into one answer.
“I say things as they are. Musically, I’ll choose Blaqbonez. But personality goes to Odumodu. Blaqbonez is better than Falz, Iceprince, Reminisce, and Vector. But I’m better than them all.”
The rest of the conversation stayed on how he got into rooms with Masterkraft, Dagrin and later Olamide, whose feature on “Indomie” in 2014 remains the record that introduced CDQ to a national audience.