Popular Nigerian music producer, ID Cabasa has lambasted Senegalese-American singer, Akon for saying that he created Afrobeats.

Cabasa said: “Akon for also tok say na he still discovered the likes of 2Face, Timaya, 9ice and Co. Na the people wey he roll with when he come Nigeria, wey tell am say, ‘I’m the biggest person around this place.’ So, he properly feels he pioneered business and branding sides of Afrobeats.”

“Even the way wey he take dey tok about Wizkid, no be wetin the story be be that. We all know say na Banky W dem sign Wizkid.”

“Yes, we collaborate with Akon in terms of distribution but e no mean say he go tok say na he create Afrobeats. Because Afrobeats no be wettin wey one person create, na culture.”

For those who don’t know, this is what Akon said in an interview recently:

“In 2008, I spent my time in Nigeria developing what you see today as Afrobeats. And all of them can attest to it.”

“Wizkid was the first Nigerian artist we signed officially at that time. And then we went on to sign a group called P-Square, which was the first Nigerian group that made it internationally.”

“Wizkid was just the local Nigerian star before we touched him and it opened up to a bigger market. I wouldn’t want to take credit for all of it but I can tell you that if we didn’t do what we did, Afrobeats would still have been in the same position it was when we got to Nigeria in 2008. That I can tell you 100 per cent.”

“I brought the business side of music to Afrobeats because all Nigerian artists at that time knew about was the creative side of music. There was no business, no infrastructure, none of it attached to it.”