Victor AD wrote Tiwa Savage an open letter on Saturday evening to say sorry for a verse the world never heard. She had recorded it for the remix of “Wetin We Gain,” his 2018 breakthrough, and in his words the remix “never saw the light of day.” A few hours later a fan reminded him of an old interview where he said he had turned remix offers down because he believed God wanted him alone on the song, and he didn’t back away from it: “Yes, I did. And I don’t regret not releasing the remix.”
So the apology covers her time. He said he felt bad “that my team and I let her put her time, effort, and talent into recording it without ever releasing the song.”
That makes sense once you remember what the song was to him. “Wetin We Gain” came out in June 2018 on ETIN Records, a Krissybeat production sung by a Delta band singer whose earlier releases had gone nowhere. He has always called it a conversation between himself and God, recorded when he was close to giving up, and the verses sound like a man praying out loud: “Lord you know wetin me and you don talk / Make e manifest oh Baba.” The chorus asked the blunter question, “If we no buy the Benz / Wetin we gain?”, and that hustler’s line made it a street anthem. By the 2019 Headies it was up for Song of the Year and Best Pop Single.
The big names came quickly, and he kept saying no in his own way. When someone in Davido’s camp asked for a remix, Victor told Punch in 2019, “I decided we should do a new song because my hit song already had its own vibe.” The two recorded “Tire You” the next morning. Tiwa got further than that. She recorded her part, NotJustOk teased the remix with her name on it in October 2018, and then nothing came out.
Her answer under the letter was short: “I appreciate this. God knows the reason for everything. All love.”
Two months ago the same kind of shelved verse went very differently. Davido said in an interview that he had recorded a verse for Wande Coal’s 2021 single “Come My Way” but didn’t want to appear on a remix once the solo version was already out, and Wande answered on X that the song had its own release plan and was never Davido’s to set terms on. By August 18 they were calling each other “Mr Little” and “Mr. Toto beggar.” Here the setup was the same, a singer’s own hit and a star’s verse left unused, and it ended in one evening with “All love.”
Victor didn’t stay around for the commentary. “I don talk wetin dey my mind, I don move on,” he posted while the replies kept coming. Neither of them said anything about the verse ever coming out.