Top 10 Famous Nigerian Musicians Who Have Totally Gone Broke After Making Millions From Their Career

There is a saying that goes thus “If you save money today, money will save you tomorrow”. Many Nigerian celebrities forgot to save money during their trending days until they fade out of the music scene and they find themselves regretting at the end of the day.

A lot of time, some celebrities think their source of wealth will never run dry so they squander their money on luxurious materials, hard drugs, women, e.t.c, forgetting to plan for the future. Others also made mistake investing in wrong businesses and saving with wrong banking sector.

This is why we see a lot of new generation music stars are starting up businesses that can run for long enough even when their music is no longer the talk of the town and this brings us to the topic of today.

Read and discover 10 Nigerian musicians that were living luxurious life some years ago but now living in abject poverty.

1. Marvelous Benji

Marvellous Benji is a name that you won’t easily resonate with but when you remember songs like “Dem No Like Us” and “fire burn dem”, you will remember the Ajegunle Superstar with dreaded hair.

hair.

He was signed to Kennis Music at a point in his career in the early 2000s. The artist owned luxurious cars and moved to a house he built around the Iba area of Lagos but then again, his music career died.

Marvellous Benji was reported to have sold his house and all its content to one of his friends that was also a music artist in 2013 because he needed to move back to Ajegunle.

Recently, news reached us that the once huge and rich music star has moved to an area called “Akessan” close to Abaranje in Ikotun.

It was said that things are not going well with the singer and he sometimes visits viewing centers to watch football for N100 and also roams around the streets begging for 50 Naira to smoke Igbo and play with small children ,chasing them around the neighborhood.

Reports also says that some people think he is now mentally imbalanced (he don kolo).

2. Lord Of Ajasa

Whenever you see the set of the first-generation Nigerian hip hop artistes come out to source for financial support due to illness, then you just know that they no longer have the financial means associated to their names.

Lord of Ajasa was one of the founding fathers and pioneer of Yoruba language rap in Nigeria later carried on by Dagrin and Olamide into today where we have a lot of Yoruba rappers.

After Lord of Ajasa went out of the limelight, it was said that life has really been hard for the rapper as he couldn’t afford to foot his medical bills when he was sick.

3. Eedris Abdulkareem

Eedris Abdulkareem was one of the best and most popular Nigerian Hip Hop rappers from the early 2000s with smash songs like Mr Lecturer and Jaga Jaga. His works can never be forgotten because they were conscious music.

He was signed to Kennis Music after splitting with the music group “ Eddy Remedies” in 2002.

He was always an activist and anti-government musician like Fela and this made him lose relevance fast when power changed hands from Obasanjo back in the day.

From cruising in Hummer Jeeps to riding in a regular car and not being able to get one song properly marketed today. Eedris Abdulkareem has lost his relevance in the Nigerian music industry.

He is always seen coming out on socials to criticize one or two things in the Nigerian Political and Musical system but really, nobody is paying attention to him

Few months ago, the rapper was diagnosed with Kidney Failure that required a lot of millions, he couldn’t foot the alone due to his financial condition. He had to create a Go-fund-me account and cried out to Nigerians for financial support him in order to lose his life.

4. Blackface

Ahmedu Augustine Obiabo popularly known as Blackface was part of the Plantashun Boiz musical trio that dominated Nigeria in the early 2000s alongside Afropop superstars, Tuface and Faze. This was how each of these artists first got popular but in 2004, they split up their fame, wealth, cars and success to each stand-alone and this was the beginning of a downfall for Blackface.

Tuface and Faze went on to make smash hits while Blackface lost It all to the split up. For the longest, Blackface has been dragging Tuface over the African Queen song because he claimed to have written the song.

However, Tuface has been paying royalties to Faze for 10 years over the song which was the best thing that could have been done legally.

Blackface has still not been able to dish out a good record to Nigerians since the split of the Plantashun Boiz. He went further to make his own version of “African Queen” but unfortunately, nobody paid attention to him. Currently, he has gone totally broke and he’s nowhere to be found.

5. Azadus

Azadus is Nigerian artist who is famously known for his hit songs like “You is the one“ and “See trouble“. Unfortunately, the musician is now struggling and nowhere to be found in the music arena.

In 2015, a picture of Azadus surfaced the internet where he was seen using an Okada which had everyone talking. He was known to drive the best cars and is even an ex-owner of Lincoln Navigator.

The musician has not given up on music and is now ready to give his fans some new music after recovering from Covid back in 2020.

6. Olu Maintain

Yahooze crooner, Olu Maintain, , has really gone from having Hummer Jeeps, sleeping around expensive hotels and wearing the most expensive designer clothings to not having anything at all.

I mean, we can as well say another why Hummer Jeeps aren’t rampant in Nigeria was that Olu Maintain went missing from music. (lol).

In 2019, news circulated the internet that singer Olu Maintain was sent out of his apartment in Ikeja due to his financial crisis which couldn’t allow him to pay for his house rent in Ikeja.

It’ll be an incredible turn of events, as 14 years ago, Olu Maintain had one of the biggest songs in Africa. Big enough that there’s a famous video of Colin Powell dancing to the song along with Olu Maintain. His debut album was also pretty big.

7. Vic O

Odu Aka better known as Vic O is a Nigerian rapper, songwriter and stage performer. He rose to limelight in 2010 after the successful release of his smash hit titled “After Party”.

Currently, Vic O is broke and bankrupt. He made this known last year in a video he shared on his Instagram page after he lost his father. The rapper was crying and begging his fans to support him financially.

In the video captioned “I don’t want to die in silence” which has garnered over 10,000 views, the singer posted his bank account, bitcoin, and PayPal for financial help. “So anyhow u can support me u won’t regret it. Send me dm and if you’re truly a fan of mine. Anyhow, u feel like it will be helpful.”

8. Stereo Man

Sunday Stery Osako popularly known as Stereoman Ekwe was said to be promoting his culture and tradition through music.

When he started appearing on Globacom billboards across the country, Stereoman automatically became a celebrity.

In 2005, he released his album titled “Sample Ekwe”. The album stormed the nation and has everyone dancing to its unique rhythm.

As a one time Glo ambassador, Stereoman recounted that Globacom made him a millionaire.

Unfortunately for the musician, everything took a downturn for the musician in 2012 when he was accused of the murder of the his wife.

He was then invited for interrogations by the Homicide Detectives of the CID following allegations that he strangled and killed his wife in her Honda Civic car in April, 2012.

The incident affected the career and fortune of the artist and scandals that followed suit and his absence in the music world was felt as his fans became worried about the whereabouts of the Delta born singer.

Stereoman was then released from the prison about two years later but the damage was already done and he lost all his endorsements and deals with Globacom.

9. Blackcamaru

Blackcamaru is a popular Nigerian comedian and singer, his funny clips went viral in 2022 which gave him a breakthrough. Blackcamaru barged million naira endorsement deal with Kuda Bank during his hay days but unfortunately things went bad for the talented man after he disappeared from the music and comedy industry.

It was reported that Blackcamaru now lives in a very dirty area of Lagos state and the singer has been abandoned by his management after spending all the money he made on drugs.

One of our team members who saw him also confirmed that the singer is almost losing his mind.

10. Brymo

Olawale Olorofo popularly known as Brymo was once a signee of Chocolate City Records but unfortunately the sweet relationship between him and the record label went sour after he reveled that he was being cheated and didn’t get any royalty from the label.

The Nigerian music industry is against son of the carpenter turned music star after filing a lawsuit against Chocolate City Records.

From living luxurious life, flaunting gold chains, wristwatches and designer wears and not been able to compose/write good music.

Music producers and A list artistes have refused to work with him.He is always seen coming out on Twitter to abuse and criticize some individuals in the Nigerian music system but it seems nobody is paying attention to him