Drake has had many hits throughout his career, and now, the Toronto native has helped Afrobeats superstar Wizkid reach a history-making RIAA milestone.
The RIAA has certified “Come Closer” — the hit track featuring the two artists — as platinum on Tuesday (May 8). It’s the Nigeria native’s third platinum single, following “Essence” (which featured Tems) in November 2022, and “One Dance” (which also featured Drizzy, alongside Kyla) in December 2022.
With this third certification, Wizkid is now the first-ever African artist to earn three RIAA singles. And interestingly enough, “Come Closer” first dropped all the way back in 2017.
The song, originally dubbed “Hush Up The Silence” when it leaked in January and then debuted on OVO Sound Radio a few weeks later, was renamed “Come Closer” for its official release at the end of March.
The track debuted at No. 13 on Billboard’s Twitter Top Tracks chart for the week of April 15.
It marks the third meeting of the two artists, who produced one of the biggest songs of 2016 with “One Dance” (which became Spotify’s first song to hit a billion streams), and before that, brought more than 11 million plays to SoundCloud for WizKid’s Ojuelegba remix, with some help from Skepta.
The video is directed by Daps, born Oladapo Fagbenle in Lagos, Nigeria, who worked on Kendrick Lamar’s “King Kunta” video and has become a regular collaborator of Migos, directing the visuals for “Bad & Boujee,” “What The Price” and “T-Shirt” off the trio’s Culture album.
But despite all of Wizkid’s success with Drake, Swizz Beatz recently claimed that it was he — not the “Laugh Now Cry Later” rapper — that first introduced Wizkid to America.
The producer was a recent guest on Amazon Music’s Rotation Roundtables with Speedy Morman, Nyla Symone, Rob Markman, and Gabe P. During the interview last month, Swizz made a bold statement about his role in bringing Afrobeats to the U.S. audience.
“See, the key thing that you said was you got on a plane and you went to Ghana and now you’re stuck on Afrobeats,” he said. “I introduced Wizkid to America. I was the first person to play his song. Me and my wife were on a trip and we danced to his song.
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“[I was the] first person to bring Burna Boy to the States. Actually, he had a Ruff Ryders bandana on and I introduced him on the stage. When I was playing Fela Kuti, people thought I was being too African, and that’s how ignorant the energy was at that time.
“But I didn’t let that stop me from moving what I’m moving because it is what it is. It’s all educational. So we can’t be scared of the educational journey of something that sound different or feels different. So for me traveling the world, it’s a whole like — I can’t wait for people to listen to Ebo Taylor.”
He added: “It’s piercing through, by the way. People are more open-minded — they just need the right entry point.”
