The well-known Nigerian singer Crown Uzama, better known by his stage name Shallipopi, has shared his origin story.
He said that Shaolin Popey, a 1994 Chinese kung fu comedy movie, was the source of the moniker.
The singer revealed that he tried using his birth name, Crown, and monikers like Drip Face as his stage name before deciding on Shallipopi in a recent interview with British media personality Madame Joyce.
He emphasized that his mother had purchased a Tom and Jerry CD for them, but when they put it in their DVD player, it turned out to be the movie Shaolin Popey, and he stated that he had discovered the film by chance when he was growing up.
“I was like, let me look for [stage] name.”
Shallipopi also made it clear that his style is called “afro-talk” rather than “afrobeats.”
As per him, he isn’t a rapper yet a talker.