His most famous play, Ọba kò so (The King did not Hang), a dramatization of the traditional Yoruba story of how Ṣango became the Orisha of Thunder, received international acclaim at the first Commonwealth Arts Festival in 1965 and on a Europe an tour, where a Berlin critic, Ulli Beier, compared Ladipọ to Karajan.

[4] Abiku, meaning "born to die", is a Yoruba concept in which there are spirits that possess the bodies of several children of a parent and exist to cause pain and sadness for him or her.

The only way this could be solved was by engaging in intense spritiual rituals made to tie the child down to this world or convince the evil spirit that its death would not bring sadness.

[citation needed] Ladipọ tried hard and succeeded in exposing himself to traditional and Yoruba cultural elements, especially when living under the veil of a Christian home.

While in Ibadan, he became one of the founding members of an artist club called Mbari Mbayo and became influenced by a German scholar named Ulli Beier.

Throughout his career, Ladipọ wrote 10 Yoruba folk operas combining dance, music, mime, proverbs, drumming and praise songs.

[citation needed] Ladipo started his personal theatre group in 1961, but he became fully established with the founding of the Mbari Mbayo Club in Oṣogbo.

He later transformed Mbari Mbayo into a cultural center, an arts gallery and a meeting point for young artists seeking to develop their talents.Ladipọ wrote quite a number of plays, including Suru Baba Iwa and Tanimowo Iku.