Nigerian singer Crown Uzama, better known by his stage name Shallipopi, has broken his sudden silence on the bruising public dispute with his former manager, Damilola “Dapper” Akinwumi, not to escalate it, but to explain why he’s stepping away from it.
In a statement issued to fans, the “E Don Cast” hitmaker said he has been advised by his legal team and by investigators at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to stop discussing the matter publicly while the anti-graft agency carries out its probe.
It marks a notable shift in tone for an artist who, just weeks earlier, had taken to social media in blunt, unfiltered terms to accuse his former manager of financial wrongdoing.
The dispute burst into public view in mid-August, when Shallipopi alleged in a series of posts on X that Dapper Music had withheld royalty earnings from 46 of his songs, including proceeds from his hit track “E Don Cast.”
The singer’s grievances didn’t stop at withheld royalties; he further claimed that his own music catalogue had been sold without his consent and alleged that Dapper had taken the catalogues of several other artists to Virgin Music, collecting payment for the transactions without properly accounting for the proceeds to the artists involved.
The singer’s posts, delivered in characteristically raw Nigerian Pidgin, didn’t hold back on tone either.
He accused his former manager of being a serial manipulator and claimed he was not the only artiste allegedly affected, suggesting others had similar concerns about their financial arrangements with Dapper.
He also threatened formal action, telling his former manager directly that he intended to file a report with the EFCC.
Those threats have since materialized into an active investigation, and with it, a legal reality that appears to have forced Shallipopi to recalibrate how he engages with the public on the matter.
In his latest statement, the 26-year-old artist struck a markedly more restrained note than the fiery posts that preceded it.
He explained that his legal team and the EFCC had advised him to step back from public commentary and allow the process to run its course, adding that rushing the process could ultimately undermine the pursuit of justice.
“My legal team and the EFCC have advised me that, for justice to be served, I need to step back and trust the legal process,” Shallipopi said, in comments that have circulated widely since the statement was posted.
For an artist whose earlier salvos against Dapper were delivered as much through music and social media bravado as through formal complaint, the shift is significant.
He acknowledged as much himself, conceding that he no longer has the freedom to address the dispute through the same channels his lyrics, his platform, and his voice that he had leaned on just weeks prior.
Crucially, though, stepping back from public commentary is not the same as stepping back from his claims. Shallipopi was careful to note that his silence should not be read as a retraction.
He said he continues to stand by everything he has previously alleged against Dapper Music and Entertainment Limited, even as he now accepts that airing further grievances publicly, or through his art, could complicate the very investigation he pushed to initiate.
The Shallipopi-Dapper fallout does not exist in isolation. It has become emblematic of a wider reckoning playing out across a stable of young Nigerian artists once associated with Dapper Music, with reports also surfacing of grievances from other acts, including Seyi Vibez and T.I Blaze, over royalty payments, catalogue arrangements, and disputed contracts.
What began as talk of a management fallout has, over the course of a few weeks, snowballed into a story touching on allegations of forged signatures and broader questions about how artist earnings were handled within the label.
For Shallipopi personally, the stakes could hardly be higher. He described the matter as inseparable from everything he has built since his teenage years, a framing that underscores just how much of his career, reputation, and financial future he sees as riding on the outcome of the EFCC’s findings.
For now, the singer says he is choosing patience over public confrontation, trusting in his words that justice will ultimately prevail, even as he grapples with the frustration of having to stay quiet on a matter he clearly still feels deeply invested in.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Shallipopi’s silence is not surrender. Under legal advice from his own team and the EFCC, he has paused public commentary to protect the integrity of an active investigation into his allegations that Dapper Music withheld royalties from 46 songs and sold his catalogue without consent.
He maintains he stands by every claim he’s made; he’s simply letting the process, not his platform, decide the outcome now.
