The Olamide Diss that Everyone Missed on Khaligraph Jones Song

When Khaligraph Jones released “Best Rapper In Nigeria" in all caps, everyone thought it was aimed squarely at Blaqbonez. Using multi-syllabic rhymes that would make Slim Shady proud, Khaligraph lyrically murdered Blaqbonez and not even a 48 hour later reply could dig Blaq out of the grave. But in almost every rap beef, there are always those who get caught in the crossfire. Rappers are like armies that only have one strategy, offence. It doesn’t matter who gets hit by a stray bullet. In the case of Khaligraph Jones and Blaqbonez, it’s Olamide who has become an unwitting partaker of the feud.











“Nigerian rappers used to be the hardest in the game/ But along the way changed…/ Mode 9 and M.I. Those will be the best/ Vector Tha Viper, he got my respect/ Ice Prince Zamani, he's the coldest in the west/ The rest are doing Afrobeats Motherf***er, what a mess” Khaligraph raps at the 1:45min mark. Now you may argue that it’s a blanket diss aimed at everyone in the Nigerian rap game whose name he didn’t mention. But the line “We see all the new dance moves but who’s doing the raps?” narrows it down to who he’s talking about specifically. In 2015 Olamide released a hit single called “Bobo” which made the dance style “Shakiti Bobo” very popular, and he didn’t stop there. One could argue that the majority of Olamide’s recent output is Afropop as opposed to Hip Hop. It’s a sneak diss that’s even as disrespectful as M.I’s ranking of Falz in 2019.


Olamide isn’t the first in recent times to be grazed by a bullet that was meant for someone else. In the beef between Eminem and MGK, P.Diddy, Halsey, Taylor Swift and a host of others were name-dropped by Slim Shady. Halsey, in particular, took offence but quickly deleted the tweets that expressed her displeasure. In 2019 M.I on “The Viper” not only underrated Falz, but also put CDQ on a spot in the list that CDQ didn’t find favourable. Now using a sneak diss, Khaligraph Jones is subtly suggesting that Olamide is soft and too mainstream to be considered real Hip Hop.






It will be too easy for Olamide fans to be up in arms about this, but the truth is, Khaligraph Jones is a little right. The Nigerian music industry isn’t very hospitable to real Hip Hop. Everybody wants a track they can dance to. Olamide started out as a pure lyricist but has since evolved into a hit-making machine, and you can’t blame him, that’s the only way to survive in this climate. Perhaps the only frustrating aspect of this is that Olamide hasn’t caught on to the shade. A clapback from the Baddo would no doubt be savage.

Khaligraph versus Olamide would certainly be a sight to behold. Blaqbonez put up a respectable fight against the Kenyan, but it's far from a landslide victory. Khaligraph Jones seemingly has the better delivery, his flow is diverse enough to make it a fair fight to go against Olamide. But Olamide has a solid history of savagery. Olamide’s hard-hitting punchlines and street credibility would make him a much tougher contender than Blaqbonez for Khaligraph Jones.