British-Nigerian media personality, Adesope Olajide, aka Shopsydoo, has accused the Grammy organisers of using Nigerian artists for promotion.
According to reports, the Nigerian quintet of Burna Boy, Davido, Ayra Starr, Asake and Olamide lost in all the categories they were nominated in at the 66th Grammys on Sunday night.
Reacting via an Instagram live session, Shopsydoo claimed that the Recording Academy doesn’t care about African music, stressing that the Grammy band playing Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s ‘Water’ after ‘Water’ by South African singer, Tyla was announced as the winner of the inaugural Best African Music Performance category, was enough reason that the Grammy doesn’t have a clue about African music.
He urged African musicians, especially Nigerian artists, to boycott Grammy.
He said, “Tyla’s ‘Water’ [was announced as winner], the band is playing Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s ‘Water’ while somebody that has a different ‘Water’ was working on the stage. If you want to know about an organisation that has no clue, the Grammy has no clue.
“They have no clue, they know nothing about our culture. And we shouldn’t be wasting our energy there. These bums gave Tyla’s ‘Water’ an award and they are playing Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s ‘Water’ in the background. Is that an organisation that understands us? They don’t care about us, man.
“They just want to use us for promotion. One billion people in Africa, they want us to continue to sell the Grammy. We ain’t f*cking with that. For me, I don’t want nobody to come tell me about no Grammy, mehn.
“I’m telling you for a fact, they used Davido heavily to promote their platform. They rely hugely on the incredible numbers and eyes that Nigeria and Africa bring and they used our artists. They announced one of the greatest artists of our time, Burna Boy as a performer which got us all excited. They nominated Burna Boy four times, they nominated Davido three times, but they knew that they were going to f*ck them up.”