Omoniyi Temidayo Raphael (born on 19th December 1994) is the full name of Nigerian professional rapper, singer and dancer Zlatan. He is also known by the stage name Zlatan Ibile, with the last part of his stage name being a homage to the street he claims to represent.
Zlatan has always been passionate about music and was a well-known campus singer during his Mashood Abiola Polytechnic days. He received a career boost in 2014 after emerging the winner of Airtel’s One Mic Campus Tour competition in Ogun State.
Temidayo first burst into the Nigerian music scene with his street rapping style but despite it being an already owned section of music, Zlatan used his unique dancing skills to edge out the competition. He dropped the famous Zanku song accompanied by the dance routine of the same name in 2018. Zanku is, so far, one of the major achievements of his career. Read the full biography of Zlatan to learn more about this talented street rapper but first, let us take note of some important facts about him below.
10 facts you should know about Zlatan biography
- Omoniyi Temidayo Raphael is the real name of Zlatan and he is a native of Ekiti State.
- Zlatan was born in Lagos on 19th December 1994 and he will be 26 years old in 2020.
- At the age of 19, in 2014, Omoniyi won the Airtel One Mic Campus Tour competition and got a recording deal with ID Cabasa’s label.
- Zlatan’s first love was football, which he stills plays for leisure as an attacker.
- The phrase “Kopaichumarimarichopaco” popularly associated with Zlatan has no meaning according to him.
- Temidayo Raphael also pioneered the trendy dance step Zanku (aka Leg Work) and it means: Zlatan Abeg No Kill Us.
- He was arrested by the EFCC along with Naira Marley in May 2019 and he spent five days in detention before being released on bail.
- Zlatan won Best Collaboration Awards, Best new act and Song of the year at the 2019 All Africa Music Awards (Afrima).
- He also won Best Collabo at the 2019 Headies award and City People Music Awards for Street Music of the Year in 2019.
- Omoniyi got a National Diploma in Business Administration from Mashood Abiola Polytechnic.
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Zlatan Biography: Early life
Zlatan’s real name is Omoniyi Temidayo Raphael and he was born in Lagos on 19th December 1994. His stage name was coined after the popular Swedish football Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The singer adds ‘Ibile’ to his performance name to show his street background.
Although Temidayo grew up in Ikordu, Lagos, he is originally from Ekiti state as that is where his parents are from. He had wanted to be a professional footballer and plays in an attacking position. That was why he adopted the name of Zlatan after the famous Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic who has played for Manchester United, Barcelona, PSG, and other top world football clubs. He s currently with AC Milan a club he had played for in the past. Zlatan Ibile revealed to Beats 99.9 FM that he still plays football but we assume for leisure and maybe fitness purposes.
At the completion of his secondary education, Zlatan obtained a National Diploma (ND) in Business Administration from Mashood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State. His venture into music was happenchance following his friends’ encouragement, which was reinforced after he won Airtel One Mic Campus Tour in 2014. He would therefore forego going for a Higher National Diploma n favour of a music career.
Prior to 2014, Omoniyi Raphael (aka Zlatan) was relatively unknown except perhaps around his Lagos neighbourhood, where he likely performed at some small shows. However, his first taste of fame came after he emerged the winner of the Airtel One Mic Campus Tour competition in 2014.
He had beaten five other finalists during the contest’s grand finale held at the OK Centre, Ibara GRA, Abeokuta.
Zlatan Ibile (the name he had entered the contest with) went away with star prizes that included a brand new Kia Picanto, a full artiste makeover and a recording deal with ID Cabasa’s Coded Tunes.
The lyrical competition had taken over two hours and sitting on the judging panel that day were ID Cabasa, versatile street rapper and singer-Reminisce and DJ Jamalot.
After this first major feat, Temidayo seemed to have gone back to the drawing board and the music world heard nothing from him again until three years later, in 2017.
Zlatan Ibile’s music career beginning 2017
Zlatan Ibile released the track Zlatan, named after himself, in the middle of 2017. The rap song was a full rap track that is daunting and fearless. It immediately caught the attention of rap music enthusiasts as it reminded them of Olamide’s breakout track, Eni Duro. Also, the track brought something that has been missing among music lovers at that time: a proper Street rap from an upcoming artist.
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The song became a hit the moment it dropped with its fiery lyrics and passionate delivery.
It did not take long before YBNL boss, Olamide, jumped on a track with him and they released the single, My Body, in October 2017. With the already established prominence of the YBNL’s boss, Zlatan became a name to be reckoned with for the first time. People started to take notice of the dark-skinned Yoruba singer with the brightly dyed hair and colourful outfits like the Power Rangers.
His next project with other YBNL singers will outdo these initial successes. In fact, many will forget that they already knew of Zlatan Ibile before it, but they cannot be blamed. Big successes have a way of suppressing smaller ones.
It’s instructive to note that Zlatan has credited Olamide as being instrumental to his career finally taking off.
Zlatan ‘blows’ in 2018
So it happens that in 2018, Chinko Ekun teamed up with Lil Kesh and Zlatan to deliver one of the biggest songs Nigeria saw the whole year, Able God. The song was a masterfully engineered double-meaning piece of art. It could be interpreted to mean a song appealing to God to bless legal hustles as well as illegal ones. Either way, the lyrics and sound were enjoyed by most ears that heard them. But that was only one part of the song’s success. The next part was witnessed with the launch of the video for Able God.
In the video of Able God, Zlatan led the other duo in executing a never-before-seen dance routine that majorly had to do with tasking the legs. Back then, the dance routine was first called Leg Work but the rapper would later rename it into something more personal – Zanku.
ZANKU: Zlatan Abeg No Kill Us
There was no going back to the cloak of obscurity for Omoniyi Raphael after the success of Able God and the popularity of its dance routine. It became a signature dance move both offline and online. The songwriter then dropped a single titled: Zanku.
Zanku immediately became the name that goes with the dance despite some people still refer to it as Leg Work. Zanku is an acronym for Zlatan Abeg No Kill Us – a bridge he used all through the track.
While the track was making waves, Zlatan Ibile began to be featured on more songs. It was as if other artistes just woke to the fact that he was the current hot cake and they wanted to tap into his shine, which cemented his status as a music star.
We will briefly look at his notable features with other artists following the release of Zanku to elaborate on this point.
Selected Zlatan Ibile’s music features
Davido and Zlatan
The boss of DMW, David Adeleke, and Zlatan Ibile have developed a close bond. Both have appeared on many tracks together and the first time was on the song Osanle on which Zlatan featured Davido. They were also on Super Power with Yonda as well as on Bum Bum in January 2019. Their most recent appearance together was on Sweet in the Middle on which they were joined by Wurld and Naira Marley as well.
Besides featuring on tracks together, Davido also stood for Zlatan when thugs roughed him up over Segun Wire. Omoniyi had been accused of diverting funds that Olamide and Davido allegedly gave to the young Segun. David Adeleke had supported him vocally online.
The official story about Segun Wire was that in 2017, the nine-year old’s video surfaced on Instagram. The video, which trended at the time showed the boy telling the world that he wanted to become an internet fraudster. It caused a ruckus online as the public started complaining that the constant show off of ill-gotten wealth was causing moral rot, especially among impressional young people.
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Zlatan took the boy under his wing and created an Instagram account for Segun and started touting him as the next big thing in the comedy world. Then he went farther, he financed the boy’s schooling in a private school and also took care of his upkeep.
But things took an ugly turn in 2018 when the family of Segun Wire turned on the singer and accused him of stealing from Segun Wire.
Naira Marley and Zlatan
The controversial Soapy crooner, Azeez Fashola (aka Naira Marley), and Zlatan have both been close, making appearances on many tracks. This makes Azeez Fashola important to Omoniyi Temidayo’s (Zlatan Ibile) biography. The two artists collaborated on the hit Am I A Yahoo Boy in 2019. This track raised more than its fair share of dust that culminated in the arrest of Naira Marley, Zlatan as well as three others by Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, EFCC.
Zlatan and the three others were released after a while Naira Maira was held for several weeks. He was subsequently released on bail but the case is still pending before a Federal High Court in Lagos State. However, since Naira Marley’s release, he and Zlatan have collaborated on many songs together.
Zlatan appeared on Soapy’s video and both of artists were also on Illuminati track. They have also worked together with Davido as stated in the previous section.
Burna Boy and Zlatan
Grammy nominee Damini Ogulu aka Burna Boy and Raphael have worked together on two major tracks. The two singers collaborated on Killin Dem in December 2018 and also gave us Gbeku in 2019. Killin Dem turned out to be one of the biggest tracks of 2019.
It was awarded the Best Collabo at The Headies 2019 and Song of the Year at the 2019 African Muzik Magazine Awards. The inclusion of the track in Burna Boy’s African Giant project also helped push the album’s fame farther.
Zlatan’s debut album – Zanku
On 1 November 2019, Zlatan Ibile released his debut studio album, Zanku. The album houses 17 songs two of which are bonus tracks. It features music heavyweights such as Tiwa Savage, Burna Boy, Patoranking, Davido and more. The songs’ producers are also some of the well-known ones like Speroach, Spellz, IamBeatz, KIDDOMINANT, Rexxie and Miraqulousbeatz.
Zlatan Ibile’s record label – Zlatan Records
Zlatan Ibile kicked off the new year with an announcement that he has started his own record label called Zlatan Records.
I’m a different breed !! Say hello to the CEO of ZANKU REC pic.twitter.com/02OVG8Bjzh
— #ZLATAN20 (@Zlatan_Ibile) January 1, 2020
Beyond establishing social media accounts, not much else is known about what is going with the record label. However, Zlatan jokingly announced that he has signed, what we assume, is his dog Astalavi to the label.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7JKAdcp3HW/
Zlatan Ibile Biography: Zlatan EFCC arrest in 2019
The EFCC arrested Omoniyi Temidayo on 10th May 2019, a day after Naira Marley’s controversial Am I A Yahoo Boy dropped. Both artistes along with their friends – Tiamu Abdulrahman Kayode, Adewunmi Adeyanju Moses and Abubakar Musa – were picked up by agents of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
They were suspected of being internet fraudsters but five days later, all of them except Naira Marley got their freedom. It was initially rumoured that the bail conditions were satisfied by Davido but Aremo Gucci, who is a close friend of Zlatan, came out to publicly deny this. In a statement credited to PM News, Aremo said that only Olamide and Burna Boy had helped secured Zlatan’s freedom.
Zlatan Ibile’s net worth
According to an unofficial statement from Austine Media, Omoniyi is allegedly worth about $1.5 million. This is a speculative figure that may have been prompted by the fact that Zlatan signed an endorsement deal with Coca Cola. Zlatan signed the Coca-Cola endorsement deal in September 2019 for an undisclosed endorsement amount. So the worth and monetary value of Zlatan’s Coca-Cola endorsement deal is not publicly known.
As one of the most widely known drink company, endorsements deals from Coca-Cola is likely to be worth a lot of millions of naira. But there was no mention of what the exact worth of the deal was, so any information on Zlatan Ibile’s net worth or wealth is not confirmed.
So, take any Zlatan’s net worth figure with a pinch of salt so the evidence is presented.
What is Kapaichumarimarichopaco?
… and don’t bother trying to pronounce it if your tongue is twisting awkwardly. As early as his first track named after him, Zlatan has always introduced himself by shouting: “Kapaichumarimarichopaco“. Now, with the fame the slang has gained, the Bolanle singer now says it in many of his songs.
And if you are wondering what is the meaning of Kapaichumarimarichopaco? Then you are not alone but whether you can find out the meaning, is another thing but you are welcomed to try. Zlatan is not letting on what it means.
After being interviewed by two music platforms, the answer to the question: What does Kapaichumarimarichopaco mean? still goes unanswered.
In March 2018, Vibe.ng a music magazine had asked Zlatan what “Kapaichumarimarichopaco” means.
His answer had been: “It is a spiritual language and can mean whatever you want it to mean.”
Again, in a separate interview with Trace late in 2018, Zlatan Ibile had said that his popular slang means: “Casa Blanca De Katama Tofia,” which, honestly, is more confusing than the actual slang itself. he also repeated the same thing when asked by Beats 99.9 FM during an interview to explain the meaning of Kapaichumarimarichopaco.
Although some people have traced the word to an old video skit of a comedian visiting a herbalist for ritual purposes. In the video, the herbalist had repeated the slang while he slapping the shaved head of his customer. If this were the case and not a coincidence (maybe especially if it were a coincidence), kapaichumarimarichopaco may actually has no meaning at all.
However, it is obvious that no one really not knowing what it means. Like other musicians who shout something before starting a song to announce their entrance, Zlatan likely used the slang as his trademark.
Some singers like WizKid previously screamed, “Yaayi!” and Davido formerly used to say, “It’s Davido“, while Olamide used to start his rap delivery with the word “Badoo!“.
So, what does Kapaichumarimarichopaco mean? The correct answer is that the slang just spices up songs he appears on but has no meaning.
Zlatan Biography: Zlatan disses Tacha controversy and aftermath
On 27th September 2019 after controversial ex-BBNaija housemate, Tacha was disqualified from the Pepper Dem edition of the show. Zlatan dedicated a 30-second studio recording to her.
In the song, he dissed Tacha in Yoruba by escalating the effect of her alleged strong body odour. There is no clear reason Zlatan Ibile decided to diss someone who was just a contestant in a reality tv show. The recording went viral, surfacing on many people’s WhatsApp status.
The Zanku pioneer got much criticism for doing the song. But when the victim of his diss, Tacha was interviewed on Cool FM by Do2tun, she said she didn’t see the song as serious and that she still likes Omoniyi Raphael regardless. Her reply was:
“I didn’t see it as anything, I like Zlatan and I love his music, it’s all love.”
Tacha may have been forgiving, but not her fans. The Port Harcourt based celebrity has a fan base that calls themselves Titans and they have proved to be a strong movement over and over again.
So, when Zlatan posted a link on Instagram for people to vote for him in the Next Rated category of The Headies award, this dedicated Tacha fan base swore repeatedly online that they will ensure that he didn’t win in any voting category. They threatened to, instead, vote en-masse for the next strongest competitor in the same category – Rema who was just getting known back then for his popular hit, Dumebi.
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Zlatan was always favourite to win as the category had more to do with popularity but the tide of votes was moving against him for what many saw as a reward for his indiscretion.
To cut the story short, Rema stole the award at the 2019 edition of the Headies on Saturday, which held on 19th October 2019 at the Eko Convention Centre inside the Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos. Zlatan still, however, walked away with Best Collabo award for Killin Dem with Burna Boy (no pun intended).
The green-haired rapper got a chance to hit back at the Titans when he bagged three awards at Afrima not long after the whole Headies saga. Zlatan won Best Collaboration Award, Best New Act Award and Song of the Year Award at the 2019 All Africa Music Awards (Afrima). He bragged that he will give N100k to every member of Tacha’s fan base that drops their account numbers, calling them TITUS fans in the process. Did Zlatan deliberately misspell ‘Titans’? There is no way of telling.
He had said:
“100k for hungry Titus members, only drop account numbers”
Despite this, the damage had been done at The Headies already and served as a lesson not to mess with the mob.
Final thoughts …
Omoniyi Raphael, aka Zlatan Ibile or just Zlatan, is a major force in the Nigerian music industry as of 2020. It looks like he is just beginning as more projects are expected from him. Zlatan’s biography shows that he is the one credited with the creation of the Zanku dance routine, which has become a signature move at parties and other artistes’ music videos.
The creative rapper and singer will surely make more moves. Recently he created his own record label Zanku Records.
Bonus information on Zlatan biography
List of Zlatan tracks
-
- Zlatan (2017)
- My Body (2017)
- Osanle ft Davido (2018)
- Jogor ft Lil Kesh and Naira Marley (2018)
- Zanku (2018)
- Able God (2018)
- Oja (2018)
- Oladimeji ft Wale Turner, Frizzle (2018)
- Check Online (with Ajanaku, 2018)
- Sunita (2019)
- GbomoGbomo (2019)
- Ko easy worldwide (2019)
- Bolanle (with IVD, 2019)
- Omo Olope (2019)
- Shotan (2019)
- If you no know (2019)
- Super Star (2019)
- Scopatumana (2019)
- Adura Agba (2019)
- Compulsory Course (2019)
- Distracted (2019)
- This Year (2019)
- Wake Up (2019)
- Gbeku (2019)
- Yeye Boyfriend (2019)
- Quilox (2020)
List of Zlatan Ibile awards and recognitions
- Best Collaboration Awards at the 2019 All Africa Music Awards (Afrimma).
- Best New Act at 2019 All Africa Music Awards (Afrimma).
- Song of the year at the 2019 All Africa Music Awards (Afrimma).
- Best Collabo at the 2019 Headies award.
- City People Music Awards for Street Music of the Year in 2019.
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