Nigerian music icon, Innocent Ujah Idibia, popularly known as 2Face or 2Baba, has dismissed long-standing claims that he stole the hit song “African Queen” from his former Plantashun Boiz bandmate, Blackface.
The award-winning singer spoke during a fresh episode of the 234 Mzansi Podcast, which was aired on Monday and co-hosted by comic actor Chinedu Ani Emmanuel, also known as Nedu.
According to 2Face, “African Queen” was a joint effort, even though he personally wrote a large part of the lyrics.
He expressed confusion over Blackface’s continuous accusations, adding that he believes his former friend would eventually admit the truth.
“It’s a collabo. I wrote most of the song actually, but we wrote the song together basically… He [Blackface Naija] will come to his senses one day,” the singer said.
Since its release in 2004, “African Queen” has become one of Nigeria’s most iconic love songs. It catapulted 2Face into global fame and played a major role in putting Afrobeats on the international map.
The song made history as the first ever to be played on MTV Base Africa and also featured in the 2006 Hollywood movie “Phat Girlz”.
Following the track’s success, 2Face went on to win top international awards, including the MTV Europe Music Award, MOBO Award, and later became a joint winner at the BET Awards, the first African act to achieve that feat.
As of the time of filing this report, Blackface is yet to respond to 2Face’s latest comments.
