Dave has spent years putting Nigerian voices on his records. Last night, at the first show he has ever headlined in Nigeria, he played them back to a Lagos crowd: “Location” with Burna Boy, “System” with Wizkid, “Raindance” with Tems, and “Lazarus” with BOJ, who walked out to sing his part in person.
The guest Lagos kept replaying overnight came from his own undercard. Zaylevelten, the Ikorodu rapper Dave picked to open his Lagos dates, came back out for “Guide Pass,” and the two of them stood centre stage under the show’s orange arches while phones went up across the National Theatre floor. It was the one song of the night that belonged to somebody else.
“Millennial Dave fans were looking at us as we yelled Zaylevelten’s ‘guide pass’ at the top of our voices,” one fan wrote on X after the show, adding, “Yes, we listen to Dave and listen to Tenski too!”
That second crowd has been building for about two years. Zaylevelten started out recording with his phone as a microphone and a nose mask as a pop filter, and “watching me” pulled co-signs from Davido, Blaqbonez and Cruel Santino early in 2025. “Guide Pass” is the second song on then 1t g0t crazy, the mixtape he released on Independence Day last year, and Tenski, the name his fans use, is also the producer credit on it. The NATIVE called it “one of his biggest singles yet,” and it sits close to 7.9 million Spotify plays. So when Dave named him as the local opener in September, he was booking a rapper with a song this room already knew by heart.
Burna Boy, Wizkid, Tems and BOJ were all stars by the time they got on a Dave record. The rapper he shared the stage with on his first Nigerian night is still on his way there, and Lagos sang his song like it had already decided.
Dave plays the National Theatre again tonight, the last date of The Boy Who Played the Harp tour. Some of the people holding tickets already know which guest spot they’re waiting for.