- In a recent interview with CTRL Room, the singer recalls when show organizers didn’t use to offer him a seat at awards
- He described a situation where his team adviced him to affiliate with Davido so he would become famous
Nigerian hip-hop artist and producer, Tochukwu Ojogwu, popularly known as Odumodublvck has expressed his disappointment over the lack of respect for hip-hop music in Nigeria.
According to the talented musician, the genre has not achieved the level of recognition and appreciation it deserves in the country.
Despite the fact that the Nigerian music industry is one of the fastest growing in the world, with Afrobeats being the most popular genre, Odumodublvck believes that hip-hop is not getting the recognition it deserves.
In a recent interview with the CTRL Room, the singer recalled how, when he was a fledgling artist, organizers didn’t offer him seats at award ceremonies.
He also described how he declined his team’s advice to join up with afrobeats singer Davido in order to become famous.
He claimed that instead, he was drawn to UK grime artists whose style matched his own.
Odumodublvck said:
“In 2019, someone [in my team] said we should go to Lagos and meet Davido. But I was like, ‘What will Davido do for me? Even if Davido takes me to America and puts me on stage and I’m rapping my stuff, his fans won’t understand because they are afrobeats fans.’
“But these guys: Teezee, BOJ, and Sholz, are the pipeline to the UK market. And those are the closest guys I sound like internationally. So why don’t I follow that route to get to wherever I want to get to?’
“I was like, I don’t need Davido for anything now. Let me follow people that align with my vision. And that was how we just came together and we’re here now. Number one in the country against all odds. Tell them, they’ve to respect that thing. Because we went for an award show and we didn’t even have seats. They don’t respect hip-hop in Nigeria. They don’t respect us.”
The rapper, however, admitted that he conceded to Wizkid’s controversial statement that “hip-hop is dead”, stressing “I was tremendously happy about Wizkid’s statement… Hip-Hop was dead.”