He had tried a variety of names, including his real name ‘Crown’ but none stuck.

Nigerian singer, Crown Uzama, known as Shallipopi, has revealed that his stage name was coined from an old Taiwanese movie called Shaolin Popei.

During a recent appearance on the Cocktails and Takeaways podcast, the Cast singer shared the interesting story of how his stage name was crafted. Shallipopi recounted his quest to find a suitable stage name, experimenting with various options, including his given name.

He said: “I was looking for name. I needed a name and I checked this one and checked that one, it didn’t work. I even tried my own name. But if I tell people my government name, they won’t feel it like that. My name is Crown, so I needed another name. I used to go by Drip Face, and I used to change my names anyhow, so I had many names.”

The singer then narrated the story of how exactly he get the name as a child. He explained, “When we were little, we had this DVD that our parents bought for us. Back then, there were some cassettes that when you bought it, you wouldn’t see the movie on the case. You’d see a different movie inside. There was one that my mother bought, it was a cartoon, but when we played it, it was a different movie called Shaolin Popey. It was an old Korean or Karate, Kung Fu movie.”

The 1994 movie inspired young Crown. He said, “At the time I was looking for names, so I searched the movie on Google, and it saved me. So I decided to take the first S.H.A and the L.I and POPI. That’s the real story.”