The hit song “Calm Down,” by well-known Nigerian artist Divine Ikubor, often known as Rema, has become the first African song to reach one billion on-demand streams in the US.

In the United States, “Calm Down” has amassed over 1 billion on-demand streams, according to TAmerican Music Stats Company, Chart Data.

“REMA’s “Calm Down” becomes the first Afrobeats song in history to earn over 1 billion on-demand streams in the US,” Chart Data tweeted.

The “Calm Down remix” featuring Selena Gomez became the first African song to reach the billion mark on Spotify in August of last year.

The first number one song on the world’s first regional streaming chart, MENA, was officially certified by Guinness World Records as being the original version of “Calm Down.”

Media celebrity, Toke Makinwa has harshly denounced the long-standing practice of identifying people with tribal markings, describing it as cruel to minors without their consent.

On Sunday, Makinwa announced this through a number of postings on her X account. The media star thought back on the long-standing custom after recalling a recent encounter with an influencer who had tribal markings.

She wrote, “Today I saw a beautiful influencer with tribal marks and it made me think about the cruelty that culture brought upon us. Marking a child without his/her consent as a means of identification is Evil, I know our parents didn’t know any better but damnnnn!!!!”

In her subsequent posts, she highlighted that even though she admires the beauty of people with tribal marks, her concern centres around the absence of consent when marking children for identification.

“Thank God it’s abolished now. My grandma had tribal marks too.

“Some on her face and her arms, I wonder what life was like when she was younger walking around with it, though I’m sure a lot of people around her had the same but thank God it’s cancelled now,” she continued.

Following heavy backlash from some X users, Makinwa explained in another post, that her disapproval was due to the lack of consent involved and not the beauty of the marks.

“It’s not the beauty or lack of but the lack of consent. But yeah, I’ve seen a couple of beautiful people with tribal marks,” she explained.

Popular musician, Gabriel Oche Amanyi, better known as Terry G, has implied that his colleague Wizkid is the equivalent of Jay-Z in Nigeria.

American hip-hop icon and millionaire Jay-Z is well-known for his business savvy and significant impact on the genre.

In the most recent Afrobeats Podcast episode, Terry G discussed how much he admires Wizkid.

“Wizkid is the Jay-Z of our generation. He’s the first [born child of the new generation of Nigerian musicians] and we’ll always give it to him. One thing I like about Wizkid is his carriage. He has inspired a lot of people,” he said.

The ‘Akpako Master’ recalled how Wizkid came to his house back in 2016 for a recording session with him.

“Wizkid came to my house in Ishaga in 2016 to record a song with me. I was very happy he came. We recorded 4 songs together. God bless Wizkid,” Terry G said.