Olamide put Bella Shmurda on in 2019 and that was what changed his story.
For the better, that is. The Olamide stimulus package is a real thing, yes. Bella Shmurda got it at the right time and it indubitably kick-started one of the most iconic runs to breakthrough ever.
Bella Shmurda was just a street artist, a LASU alumnus who sings about hustle for working boys like him when he made “Vision 2020.”
“Vision 2020” was the kind of song you could call a spiritual jam and no one would argue. Bella Shmurda wasn’t shy to talk about the hustle or the struggle he had to go through to get where he was. This was in 2019 and he was singing “every day we scamming,” unapologetically because that seemed to be his reality. His and that of many many others.
The song was about what the future holds and how he’s looking forward to another year (2020) for his breakthrough. That breakthrough came in 2020, all right.
“High Tension” EP
He released the EP, “High Tension” to critical acclaim and commercial success. It was the lockdown era, and Bella Shmurda had become one of the major soundtracks on the streets and on the air. “High Tension” catapulted him to a place he couldn’t have imagined.
In no time, he was chilling with every big star from Davido to WizKid to Olamide to Runtown. It was insane. How could he pull it off? How did he even do it? Apparently, it was “High Tension” that did the trick for him.
The EP had sounds that were even cooler than “Vision 2020” starting from the intro, “Ginger Me,” a song that’s as spiritual as it is evergreen. Then there’s the love numbers and story-lined tracks like “Sho Mo Mi” and “Liquor” that were just as spiritual but also have all the elements of classic pop hits.
The songs on “High Tension” made Bella Shmurda a true sensation, and two years after, he’s still trying to make songs like that and he’s been not so successful. The 2020 EP remains his best project, critically and even commercially. There’s also not been a project from the streets since then that is as good as “High Tension.”
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