.Bella Shmurda said he once stole a neighbour’s son’s bicycle while living in Okoko, Lagos.
.He sold the bicycle for ₦7,000 and used part of the money for a studio session.
.The singer said he later found the boy and bought him a new bicycle.
Singer Bella Shmurda has admitted that he once stole a neighbour’s son’s bicycle and sold it to help pay for a studio session in a resurfaced interview clip from an appearance on Echo Room roughly four years ago that has begun circulating widely again.
In the interview, Bella recalled the incident happening while he lived in Okoko, Lagos. He said the bicycle belonged to a boy living in the apartment above his and was usually parked downstairs, where he had access to it.
“There was one boy, he had a bicycle. I was living downstairs, that’s where they used to park the bicycle, they were living upstairs. One midnight, I carried that bicycle and went to sell it,” he said. He said he hid the bicycle before eventually selling it in Alaba for ₦7,000.
Asked what he used the money for, Bella said it went toward paying for half of a studio session at the time. “To pay half of studio session. Shoutout to the boy… e pain me, but I didn’t have any choice,” he said, adding that he still remembers the boy today.
He said he has since made amends, revealing that he later tracked the boy down and bought him a new bicycle.
The clip resurfaced in the context of a broader question Bella was asked during the interview, about what advice he would give to young people hoping to follow in his footsteps in the music industry. He warned against turning to crime, saying it tends to spiral into increasingly uncomfortable situations, and used the bicycle incident as a personal example of the kind of choice he doesn’t want young upcoming artists to feel forced into.
Reactions to the resurfaced clip have largely leaned in Bella’s favour, with many commenters praising his honesty and noting that he did what he felt he had to do at the time, especially given that he later made things right with the boy.
Bella Shmurda, born Abiola Ahmed Akinbiyi, rose to prominence in 2019 with his breakout single ‘Vision 2020’ and its Olamide-assisted remix. He remains one of Nigeria’s most recognisable street-pop acts and leads Dangbana Republik, a Lagos-based creative collective.