Popular Nigerian singer Crown Uzama, aka Shallipopi, has revealed that his stage name was inspired by the 1994 Chinese kung fu comedy film Shaolin Popey.
Speaking in a recent interview with British media personality Madame Joyce, the singer disclosed that he attempted to use his birth name, Crown, and nicknames like Drip Face as stage names before finally settling for Shallipopi.
He explained that he stumbled across the movie by accident while growing up, stressing that his mom bought a Tom And Jerry CD for them but it turned out to be the movie Shaolin Popey when they inserted it in their DVD player.
“I was looking for [stage] name, so I was like let me coin something from the movie Shaolin Popey, that’s how I came up with my nickname,” he said.
Shallipopi also disclosed that his genre is not Afrobeats but “Afro-talk”.
According to him, he is not a rapper but a talker.