Why People Believe Naira Marley Just Dragged Wizkid and Tems

Nigerian singer Naira Marley is on the heels of the release of his studio album, God's Timing's The Best. In promotion of the album, Naira Marley has been doing some media rounds and granting interview about the music, Afrobeats, and his life all over the world. Recently, he did an interview for Complex Magazine UK and there is a portion of the interview people believe is Naira Marley throwing shade at counterparts Tems and Wizkid. Here is what Naira Marley said. Let me know if YOU think it's shade.

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Speaking to Complex about how Afrobeats and being African is now cool again, as well as speaking about his new album, Naira Marley said:

When I was in school, I didn’t understand how some Black people would say they’re not African, like the Jamaicans and other Caribbean people. Even some African people pretended they weren’t African because it wasn’t cool to be that. I had to really fight my way through, but then it got to a point where I realised: “I am cool!” But the rest of the Africans weren’t considered cool, so I would have a lot of fights. It was really a lot—trolling from the white kids, trolling from the Caribbean kids. And because I was super fresh, everything I was saying was funny to them. Now, everyone wants to be African [laughs]. Everyone knows about jollof, everyone knows the slang, everyone wants babies with African women, and now our music is leading the way around the world. We thank God! We’re still pushing, though.

I was trying to make [my new album] more global-sounding, so I linked up with a lot of other artists to make it have that feel while still sticking with my original sound: the Afrobeats sound. My fans have really taken to it—they love this version of Naira. They’re supportive and tell me that they’re proud of me for making that big move back home to Lagos and back to that original African sound. When I meet the fans now, they say, “I can’t believe you went from Lagos to England and then you moved back and took over.” So I’m proud of myself, too.

Listen to the album and you’ll hear the proper Afrobeats sound. Not people singing R&B with African accents calling it Afrobeats [laughs]. You get to dance! It’s just Naira Marley—good music from A to Z. I’ve put in the work with this project and I think that comes over in every song.

Note that during the recent Headies awards, Wizkid and Tems won the award for Best R&B single, although their award came after the interview with Naira Marley was published. It is no secret though that Tems and Wizkid have a more R&B leaning sound, hence why people think that Naira Marley's comment about "proper Afrobeats" might be shade towards them.

Do you think Naira Marley was being shady with his comment? Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment either below or on my Jide Okonjo Facebook post.

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