Music journalist Joey Akan is upset after American R&B singer Usher was nominated for an award in the ‘Best Afrobeats’ category at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards.
Akan has criticized Nigerians and Africans for not protecting the Afrobeats genre from outside influences.
This marks the second year Afrobeats category is introduced in the VMAs. Usher was nominated for the song “Ruin,” featuring Nigerian producer and singer Pheelz.
In a post on X, Akan said, “The VMAs, a global award body, just nominated Usher in the ‘Best Afrobeats’ category. And so the erosion of Nigeria from Afrobeats hits a crucial plot point.”
Akan has been warning about this issue for some time. He added, “I’ve been screaming this for a while. A decade of no gate-keeping, and local talents selling it all off and kowtowing to the big music corporations will only move in one way: the loss of cultural ownership by Nigerians.”
He criticized how Western influences have impacted the Afrobeats culture, saying, “First, they come with money and opportunities, displacing your art and the spirit by moving you out of your home. I see the stupidity of Nigerians who are inadvertently complicit in this by parroting the blasphemy: ‘London is the home of Afrobeats.’ Not Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu, or any other part of this great country. London, UK. A strange land. All because foreigners gave you money and relocated your business and music away from home.”
Akan accused foreign companies of diluting the Afrobeats sound by working with Nigerian artists and producers.
He noted, “These companies spent nearly a decade throwing our artists in rooms with foreign producers, who have spliced our records, seeking to learn the source. That has succeeded. White Afrobeats producers with no connection to Nigeria are now producing Afrobeats records. And what’s peculiar? Nigerian artists have begun to work with them.”
He warned that the culture is becoming less accessible to its creators. “Already, your culture has become too inaccessible to the masses and even most creators,” Akan said. “On the back end, only those with major-label dollars can compete. The front-end has us unable to afford our shows, and gauging Nigerian artists’ success by what they can do for foreigners.”
Akan fears that American artists will increasingly take over the Afrobeats scene. “Now, American artists have started making Afrobeats — with our token assistance, of course — and replacing you at their award shows,” he said. “Give it another decade, and the replacement becomes normalised.”
He compared the situation to the experiences of Jamaican and Caribbean cultures, adding, “This is Deja vu. Big Brother adding to their cultural pie. Slowly at first, and then all at once.”
Akan concluded, “The VMAs is just the first salvo in that battle.”
This year MTV Video Music Awards Afrobeats nominees include Ayra Starr for the Giveon-assisted “Last Heartbreak Song,” Burna Boy’s “City Boys,” and Tyla’s, “Water.”
Last year, the Best Afrobeats was won by Rema for the remix of “Calm Down” with Selena Gomez.
