This might come as a bit of a shocker but Zlatan Ibile isn’t who we think he is.

Hear me out, he’s this guy that we think whatever he touches turns to gold. I mean, he’s been here since summer of ’17 and he’s still here, doing the work, topping the charts, he’s an industry mainstay. But how did he get that? By churning out singles that became hits and solidified his status? Absolutely not!

This year, Zlatan Ibile has only released about three singles, or four if we count the remix of “Lagos Anthem.” Likewise, in 2020, will you believe if I told you that Zlatan only released about four singles in total? Yes. Just four. Know what this means? It means Wizkid released more singles than Zlatan Ibile in 2020.

How was 2020 his best year ever then when he doesn’t even have more than four singles of his own? It’s a scam.

Let’s go back to 2019 when he released only seven singles of his own. This was the year he put out his “Zanku” album, and all he had was seven singles as a lead artist. Just seven. I’d have thought he had more songs than that.

In that same 2019, Naira Marley who just came and wasn’t even gearing for any album released eight singles. That is more singles than the acclaimed Zlatan Ibile.

How come he’s this big if he’s not as consistent as we think? It’s a scam and I’ll tell you all about it.

The biggest secret of Zlatan Ibile‘s mind-blowing success is collaborations. Alone, do you think the guy would be able to have as many hits as he currently has? I think not. So what did he do? He moved close to everyone and did songs with everybody he could do songs with, from Davido to Naira Marley, to Bella Shmurda, that’s how he did it yes.

Now let’s contrast his singles and his collaborations.

In 2021, this year, he has been on seven songs that are not his. Compared to the four he’s released himself. In 2020, when he only released four (4) singles as a lead artist, he was on at least thirteen (13) other songs as a guest artist. I don’t need to tell you that 4 to 13 is a big ratio. But that’s not the wildest.

In 2019, he only put out seven (7) singles, you know how many he was featured on? I counted nineteen! Yes, 19 songs that are not his!

That’s Zlatan‘s success secret. Think about it, what songs were his biggest last year? You’d see that they were not his. His biggest tracks were “Hallelu” and “CashApp” and although he made those songs better, he doesn’t own them. He sure as hell can’t put them on his own album.

You see, it’s a scam. This guy has the whole industry believing he’s the one giving people wave, whereas he’s the one benefiting from tagging along with artists.

I won’t lie, what he’s amassed is commendable. But I just think we should all have a rethink of just how influential Zlatan is in the music industry.