Singer Teemirror has said talent would have made him bigger than Davido if talent alone ran the music business. He made the claim on Conversations With Kenni, the podcast hosted by journalist Kehinde Ajose on the Kennisplace YouTube channel.
Ajose asked whether talent is enough. Teemirror did not decorate the answer.
“If talent was enough for everyone to become what they want to become, I’m sure you would find envoy escort outside that’s be following me to this place because I would have been a global mega star. I would have been bigger than Davido if talent was enough. I’m not saying I’m more talented than him so it doesn’t feel like this is a jab on him, but then I’m just saying that with my talent I would have been very big. I would have been global, but talent is not always enough. There’s a place of hard work. There’s the place of smart work and there’s also the place of funding.”
The Davido question did not come from nowhere. In August, Wande Coal publicly called Davido a “talentless fool” during their feud over an unreleased Come My Way collaboration. Ajose said that row inspired an Instagram post asking whether Davido is talentless. Teemirror shut the idea down.
“He’s very talented and I believe that when Davido does adlibs on his songs, there’s barely any musician that can give the kind of vibe that he gives. It’s just like what Zlatan does on his songs. The adlibs he gives on the songs are always massive. So talent sometimes you don’t have to be born with talent, you can grow into it.”
He also rejected the habit of measuring artistes by vocals alone. Using Emma Oh My God as an example, he said a strong voice is not the same thing as winning a singing contest, and that a vocalist such as Waje would likely take that kind of competition. Popularity, he argued, follows craft and community, not pitch-perfect scales.When Ajose pressed him to pick between Davido and Wizkid, Teemirror ducked the fan war and chose himself.
“I love every musician because they all put in effort. They all do everything that they want to do to ensure that they win. No, I’m not political actually. I should choose one person. If I’m having to choose one person between Davido and Wizkid, I’m going to choose Timirror. Thank you.”
His closer was a working rule, not a clapback.
“Vocal dexterity doesn’t define a good singer and it’s not a yardstick for saying you’re a good artiste. A yardstick is when you have mastered your craft. You have a good community and you know how to deliver your message through your songs either to make them dance to make them think. Just deliver your thing, that’s it.”
Teemirror, also known as Aperire, is an independent Nigerian act whose catalogue includes Ajé, Kogbagidi, Hustle Oh and a cover of Davido’s Unavailable.