Afrobeats superstar Tiwa Savage has revealed that she initially disliked one of Mavin Records’ most iconic songs, “Dorobucci,” describing it as “such a crap song” when she first heard it.
Speaking in a recent interview with NotJustOk, the singer recalled that during her wedding trip in Dubai in 2014, she overheard Don Jazzy, the producer and Mavin Records boss, playing an unfinished version of the track repeatedly at their hotel. At the time, she had no idea it was a Mavin project.
“Don’t know if people know this, but ‘Dorobucci,’ I had Don Jazzy playing that in the hotel when we were in Dubai for my wedding, and I didn’t want to tell him, but I thought it was such a crap song,” Savage confessed.
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After the wedding, Don Jazzy reportedly urged her to return to Nigeria sooner than planned to record a new track. “He asked me when I was going to come back, and I said we were supposed to go on our honeymoon,” she said. “He told me, ‘Eh, there’s one record, you have to come back to Nigeria.’”
Tiwa said she reluctantly returned and was shocked when she heard the completed version of “Dorobucci.” The transformation of the song left her in awe and eventually led to one of the biggest Afrobeats anthems of its era.
“I got back to Nigeria, and I got to the studio, and I heard the song that I heard him play in Dubai. I was flabbergasted. I was so angry because this had happened with Eminado too, and I did not like it,” she admitted.
Despite her reservations, Tiwa eventually recorded her verse, but only after watching other Mavin artists, including Reekado Banks, Korede Bello, and Di’Ja, enthusiastically record theirs.
“I was the last person to record my verse because I was just looking at everybody in the studio like, do you guys really like this? Everybody had recorded it, and then I was the last person,” she recounted.
The singer said she even assumed the song was meant for one of her labelmates and never imagined it would become a record-breaking hit.
“I was like, is it Reekado he’s doing this song for? Is it Korede or D’ija? I was just thinking, ehyaa, like these people, not knowing that I was going to be on the song as well,” she said with a laugh.
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“Dorobucci,” released in 2014, went on to become a cultural phenomenon, dominating charts, clubs, and airwaves across Africa.
The song cemented Mavin Records’ dominance in the Afrobeats scene and remains one of the label’s most celebrated collaborations.
Reflecting on its success, Tiwa praised Don Jazzy’s vision and production genius. “We all know what happened to the record. I don’t know what Don Jazzy does, but it turned out to be phenomenal. So shoutout as always to Don Jazzy,” she concluded.
