9javibenews
As my turbulent flight to commercially spotlight African artists in the United States eases with time, modern-day African culture is finally becoming the hotbed for coverage on this side of the world. At every turn, there’s an Afro-this and an Afro-that, and Wizkid and Tems’ ‘Essence’ is killing the Billboard charts. However, Americans have yet to fully identify who the continent’s most valuable players are (See: Bia’s apology concerning Burna Boy, Wizkid, and Davido), so I hope to help demystify the unintentional mystery.
Photos: Kierra for GRUNGECAKE
How do we do that as a community? To understand the weight and value of an international star is to first learn about them through authentic storytelling (viable media outlets, through pop culture leaders, and using social media as the best first-person perspective tool). Then, we need to share what we’ve learned with others online, and that’s how we do our part to create global sensations.
To my delight, last week, Nigeria’s larger-than-life musician Olamide came to New York City to promote his new album titled ‘UY Scuti’, which was inspired by his first son, who is just six years old.
Olamide recalled a conversation about astronomy with his six-year-old, “Hey, Dad, could you please tell me what the biggest star in the universe is?” Confessing that he also didn’t know the name of the smallest star in the universe, the YBNL Nation CEO said his son asked him to search for the answer on Google. When the ‘Rock’ singer found it on the search engine, he shared the result with his son.
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