Veteran Rapper, Ruggedman, Worries Over How African Music Are Packaged For International Audiences

<h4>Veteran Rapper<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that veteran Nigerian rapper Ruggedman is taking a firm stand against the way African music is often packaged for international audiences&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Speaking in a recent interview with Day Genius&comma; he shared his long-held frustration with the blanket term &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Afrobeats&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I don’t like Afrobeats as an umbrella genre from every music coming out of Africa&period; That was a mistake&period; I didn’t liked it from the beginning but when I complained people accused me of being jealous or trying to gatekeep&comma;” he revealed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ruggedman stressed that this broad labeling can misrepresent artists abroad&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Right now&comma; if I go to the UK to perform&comma; I would be tagged an Afrobeats artistes&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;It is wrong&comma;” he said&comma; explaining that much of the misclassification stems from foreign markets&comma; especially in the United Kingdom&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It is the people in the UK who started this thing of tagging every African music Afrobeats&period; Nigerians love classicism&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;They just wanted to give it a name&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He didn’t hold back on critiquing the genre itself&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;For me&comma; Afrobeats with an &OpenCurlyQuote;S’ is a name talentless Nigerians hide behind&period; 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&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Then spend a lot of money to promote it&period; That is the Afrobeats with an &OpenCurlyQuote;S’&comma;” Ruggedman asserted&comma; adding that only a few performers can deliver without autotune or live-band support&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;