Abisagboola Oluseun, the Nigerian music executive, who is better known as Bankulli, has explained that collaboration between Nigerian artists and their international counterparts “is the new crude oil.”

Crude oil is Nigeria’s major export, representing 76.2% of its total exported goods by value.

Bankulli, in a recent interview with Arise TV, compared the crossover successes the Nigerian music industry is seeing to the value of the liquid gold to the West African nation.

He particularly used Grammy-award winning singer, Tems, as a case study.

He said, “Tems took a major role in that. This is the same Tems that grew from Lagos that became a star from Lagos. So, for me, I believe in international collaboration. It’s the new crude oil. It’s the new way to actually propell especially good music which is essentially.”

In recent years, the Nigerian afrobeats music scene has witnessed a lot of heavyweight international collaborations. Beyonce’s 2019 Lion King: The Gift album featured Wizkid, Burna Boy, Mr Eazi, Tekno, Yemi Alade, Tiwa Savage and Bankulli.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack album featured Tems, Burna Boy, Rema, Fireboy, and CKay.

The remix of ‘Calm Down’ by Rema which featured American superstar, Selena Gomez is the highest charting African song on the US Billboard Hot 100 this century.

Davido’s recently released fourth studio album ‘Timeless’ which featured British rapper, Skepta, and Jamaican dancehall star, Dexta Daps, broke several streaming records including the highest charting album by an African artist on the US Apple Music (peaked at Number 2) and the biggest album first-day streams in history of Audiomack.

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