You don't need to be Catered Too!

As a proud Uppity African : )

I feel like every time I come on here, I’m apologizing for another late post :( Balancing everything I’ve been doing has been so hard, but I’m committed to this!

This post is about an incident from a while back, when everyone was upset with Tyla for handing her award to Lil Nas X, saying it was too heavy. The whole interaction caused such an uproar online, with people even calling her an "uppity African." I was genuinely confused by the backlash and why people were treating her this way! And as an African myself (Nigerian), I stand by African rights and their wrongs, and in this case, there was no wrong. In fact, Tyla was doing the right thing by rejecting her VMA for Best Afrobeats—because, well, she isn’t an Afrobeats artist… When I saw the video, I thought the conversation would focus on how the industry essentially lumps all African artists into one "Afrobeats" category, despite the fact that there are so many different genres and styles within African music like—-Amapiano, Juju, Reggae, Ganwa and more. But instead, the reaction was entirely different, and that's a whole other discussion in itself.

Anyway, I talked to a friend about it because it seemed like there was a bigger issue here. Specifically, it seemed that many people, particularly…Black Americans,had an issue with Tyla. This reminded me of the time people were upset when she said she wasn't Black but "Coloured," which, technically, is how people in South Africa identify her and thus how she will identify herself. My friend mentioned that Tyla just needs to learn to communicate better with an American audience since she's trying to market herself here. And that got me thinking: Why does she have to? Why do Africans, in particular, have to cater themselves to a new target audience just because they’re trying to make money in a different market?

Black Americans aren’t necessarily her primary audience, even if they might be the ones contributing the most to her success right now. I’m not even sure that’s true. But it led me to think about Nigerian artists like Burna Boy, who have succeeded in the mainstream partly because they began tailoring themselves to a foreign audience. As a proud Nigerian, I find that ridiculous—why should anyone have to reshape themselves just to make others feel comfortable?

I think Americans are simply used to being the ones catered to, and as the world becomes more globalized, we’re going to see less of that. I believe more situations like this will happen, where people realize that not everyone is interested in making the American audience feel as special and prioritized as they want to be. Honestly, I can't wait for that day. If you’re going to support an artist or brand, support them for who they are in the era they’re in.

I’m genuinely thrilled to see the rise of African brands and music, and I truly believe we’re going to be the next pioneers in the music and entertainment industries. What baffles me is that you never see this kind of backlash directed at K-pop artists. It’s just something I’ve been sitting on, so I thought I’d share.

I hope this little post encourages some Americans to think beyond themselves and recognize that there are other cultures and people out there.