The true story of how 2face Idibia created ‘Gaga shuffle’ by pure luck

I once scored a grade I didn’t deserve because the person who assisted a lecturer in marking the script happened to be a guy who I helped out once when he was in a tight spot. He was assisting his HOD mark scripts from an exam when he happened upon my name, and instantly knew that the universe had given him an opportunity to pay me back.

He spared no thought and gave me a lifeline in school. That’s luck, fate or cosmic alignment. I believe it is a powerful force that drives the earth and keeps all our lives in balance. And it is what gave Nigeria ‘Gaga shuffle’, one of 2017’s biggest pop records from 2face Idibia.

“As I don craze, I want involve you for my f**ing craze…” 2face Idibia sings on the record. We can hear him now, appreciate the record and throw our hands up in the sky for the melody. But do you know that the stars aligned for it to happen? That the world needed that record to come out?

Well, here’s the incredible story of how it happened. This story is based off my conversation with the producer of the record Dapiano. And it begins at this point.

2face and Dapiano began to work via third parties. Vector had brought them together in 2013 when they recorded ‘Follow me dey go’. It was a collaboration single that brought them into each other’s path. And since then, they have maintained that relationship and made records together.

Dapiano is what you will call an OG. He has a long string of hit songs under his belt and has produced for the biggest names in the game.

2face Idibia is currently working on a studio album, and Dapiano is one of the producers selected for that project. He is working on 4 songs with 2face Idibia and none of them was originally ‘Gaga shuffle’. 2face Idibia needed something else with him.

So on that day, they had a recording session in Piano’s studio in Lekki, Lagos. 2face Idibia didn’t want to drive the distance alone. He found company in his close friend and industry entrepreneur Larry Gaga. When they arrived at the studio, Dapiano was making a different beat. He was experimenting with the ‘Pon pon’ sound, and didn’t want to play it for 2face. He had someone else in mind, not this legend.

But something happened, as 2face and Larry Gaga conversed in the studio, he heard a percussion out loud from the speakers.

“He heard the beat, and said he liked it,” says Dapiano. “It was as easy as anything else. It was the first thing that came out of his mouth that was the song. The entire song was recorded within 30 minutes.”

What followed after that was pure magic. 2face Idibia had sensed a good melody, and he had to record it. The song scattered his head, and he couldn’t control it. He had to freestyle about what he was feeling. He had become ‘crazed’ by the beat. But nobody else could understand, so he began to drop the line.

“As I wan craze, I wan involve you for my fucking craze,” he was singing to everyone in the studio. He has become crazy in the beat, and everyone had to be involved. Larry Gaga liked the beat too, and began to do his special dance. ‘Gaga shuffle’ isn’t just a title. It was a signature dance by Larry Gaga who was in the studio and began to move his body.

2face, sensing an opportunity, dragged the dance into the record. “Everybody do the Gaga shuffle,” he continued, maximising the energy and creating a record. It took less than 30 minutes for everything to align, and the record was created. That’s how the record came to be.

2baba still had to write some lines and voice some parts later. But the magic was already done. The rest was simply cosmetic.

Just imagine if everything did not come together. What if it wasn’t Larry Gaga that accompanied 2face to that studio. What if Dapiano was working on another different beat, and 2face had not heard it. What if the Gaga shuffle was not danced during the freestyling? What if 2face had arrived late?

There’s a lot of variables and factors that come together to make everything work. This wasn’t some laid-out single. It was pure luck, perfect timing, and the universe aligning to give Nigeria this hit song via 2face.

‘Gaga shuffle’ has become one of 2baba’s biggest records in the past three years. And when you look at it now, you wonder what it is. A stroke of luck? A roll of the dice? Or just fate and fortune working hand in hand to give us all a boost?