Tiwa Savage has finally disclosed what her latest single, 49-99 is all about.
In her recent interview with London based Nigerian OAP, Shopsy on the fourth of September, Tiwa disclosed that the title of the record, 4999 was galvanized by Fela’s classic hit record ‘Suffering and Smiling’ where he said “49 sitting 99 standing suffering and smiling.
According to Tiwa, this single is formed to shed light-weight on the failings of the Nigerian economy and to indicate the sufferings of the people. She said;
“49-99 was a phrase that was coined by the Godfather of afrobeat, Fela Kuti. 49 sitting 99 standing. Suffering and smiling. For those who are not Nigerians, we have this transit bus called molue and it has 49 seats. Instead of you to have 49 people sitting to communite to work and back, they 49 sitting and double that which is like 99 standing. That’s a reflection of the ecomony and the imbalances where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The song you can Zanku to but I wanted my first global single to also have a message that we are suffering and smiling and music is a powerful tool … and I wanted a title that’ll be a conversation starter.“
Tiwa Savage additionally disclosed that she had written this song with Olamide.
Tiwa further said that writing the the song didn’t take up to an hour and therefore the beat is so completely different from what she’s accustomed. In terms of the video, Tiwa Savage said everything used for the video was from Nigeria and therefore the video was shot in Lagos.
49-99 marks a brand new chapter in Tiwa Savage’s journey as a Nigerian performing artist as this song becomes her 1st international single after Mavin records and with Universal.
