Nigerian rapper, Michael Ugochukwu Stephens, popularly known as Ruggedman has criticised the widespread use of the term “Afrobeats” as a catch-all genre for African music, arguing that it misrepresents the continent’s musical diversity.
Ruggedman, spoke in an interview with Day Genius, said the moniker is frequently used to classify musicians who are untalented and rely on catchy sounds and repetitive lyrics.
Speaking further, he asserted that a lot of Afrobeats musicians struggle with freestyling and live performances, which he attributed to their reliance on autotune and pre-produced songs.
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“I don’t like Afrobeats as an umbrella genre from every music coming out of Africa. That was a mistake. I didn’t like it from the beginning, but when I complained, people accused me of being jealous or trying to gatekeep.
“Right now, if I go to the UK to perform, I would be tagged an Afrobeats artist. It is wrong. It is the people in the UK who started this thing of tagging every African music Afrobeats.
Nigerians love classicism. They just wanted to give it a name. For me, Afrobeats with an ‘S’ is a name talentless Nigerians hide behind.
“All you need to make an Afrobeats hit is just to get a good beat and a street slang and repeat it as many times as you like. Then, spend a lot of money to promote it. That is the Afrobeats with an ‘S’,” he said.
