Nigerian musician and politician Olubankole Wellington, popularly known as Banky W, has revealed that the artiste that inspired him to sing his hit song “Ebute Metta”.
During an episode of the Afrobeats: The Backstory, a documentary titled American Dram and Local Rappers, Banky discussed the 2008 hit song.
“Ebute Metta”, a track by Banky W, was inspired by the life the artist would later come to love. So the artist wrote songs about overcoming obstacles in life, just like any truly inspired artist would.
It was said that “Ebute Metta” was created as a result of Banky using a sample on the Umbrella instrumental from Rihanna’s 2007 hit single. However, he has debunked the rumours.
Banky said:
‘Ebute Metta’ was inspired by 50 Cent due to the fact that the US rapper was at that time known for using popular beats to promote his mixtapes. 2006, 2007 was when 50 Cent was blowing up and he had this promotional strategy of doing mixtapes.
So he would take the hottest songs on the radio, take the instrumentals and then change the words and make funny versions or crazy versions or whatever of them.
“And he built his buzz in America to the point that by the time ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’ dropped, it was like insane. So I was like okay, I’m going to do the same thing. The first one I did was ‘Ebute Metta’, the ‘Umbrella’ by Rihanna remix.”
