Declan Rice became Arsenal’s most expensive signing in history after arriving from West Ham United for £105 million fee, so the club naturally unveiled him with a slick video with a catchy song.
In fact, the song actually had his name which made a lot believe that the club might’ve hired a rapper to make it for them.
This isn’t exactly a rare thing and has been done in the past. Most notably, Manchester United hired British rapper Stormzy to make a new rap for them to uveil the return of Paul Pogba from Juventus in 2016.
Even Chelsea used the same technique to announce the arrival of Enzo Fernandez.
Arsenal can’t be blamed for trying to milk every last social media interaction they can for the signing of Rice, knowing how much hype was put around his acquisition.
The origin behind the song in Arsenal’s Declan Rice unveil video
The Gunners’ actual unveiling of the English midfielder was in a rather unique fashion.
They streamed a brainstorming session from Mikel Arteta in the analysis room and it was the gaffer who actually announced Rice to be the newest addition to the squad, with all the players applauding it.
Soon after that, Arsenal made the deal official across all their other social media accounts.
They posted a slick little clip of the 24-year-old midfielder pulling off a few moves in an Arsenal shirt and it had an addictive song inserted in it too.
But the song wasn’t created just for this occasion and the Gunners were lucky enough to find it already being ready available for them.
The ‘Declan Rice’ song was actually created by Nigerian rapper Tochukwu Gbubemi Ojogwu, who is better known as Odumodublvck.
Even though the 29-year-old’s name might be a bit of a tongue-twister, he’s already released a number of hot-selling single songs that have made the top-25 charts in Nigeria.
Odumodublvck’s most popular song is ‘Declan Rice’ which he released back in March, 2023 as an ode to the former West Ham United captain.
The Nigerian is actually a West Ham supporter and his favourite player, at least at that time, was the English midfielder.
What is the meaning of the Declan Rice song?
So the 29-year-old decided to create a slick rap song dedicated to the English midfielder and even managed to link up with him to get his blessings for the same.
The ‘Declan Rice’ single performed really, really well and made the top-25 charts in Nigeria. It also made the top-30 charts in the USA Afrobeats rap category and was once the no.1 song in the Nigeria rap scene.
The song currently has over 1.2 million views on YouTube, which has seen a major spike after Arsenal fans vibed to it after listening to it for the first time in the unveiling video.
The lyrics for the rap song is a mix between English and the Nigerian language. The chorus for it, which features Rice’s name, goes something like this:
Kwack dem
I dey feel like Declan Rice
Trillo (Willo), do like Declan Rice
Odumo’ (Slawno), do like Declan Rice (Chubbz)
Skinny wan kpob them, do like Declan Rice (Ziano)
The meaning of this rap song is about a rebellious outsider who refuses to conform to the rules of society.
The Nigerian rapper talks about a protagonist who is different and proud to stick with his friends. They feel like Declan Rice, who is hyped up to be a tough person in this context and encourages more to be like him.
This is the biggest compliment for Rice and a testament to how much West Ham fans adored him during his days at the club. The Englishman will now aim to use his tough personality and help Arsenal go all the way to piping Manchester City to the 2023/24 Premier League title.