Nigerian on-air personality Do2dtun has criticized South African singer Tyla for her comments during her acceptance speech at the 2024 VMAs, where she won Best Afrobeats for her track “Water.” Tyla’s speech highlighted the diversity of African music beyond Afrobeats, stating that she represents Amapiano, a genre from South Africa.
On September 12, 2024, Do2dtun took to Instagram to express his disapproval, saying, “Aunty @tyla aka am not Afrobeats, I am Amapiano. We have heard you but your song ‘Water’ isn’t amapiano either. If you thought you were categorized in the wrong category, you should have given the award back or denounced the nomination. You clearly took an award that didn’t represent you or your sound from that statement you made.”
He further criticized Tyla, adding, “Again, you see why you ‘ESAUS’ need to rethink. You all sold our birthright for peanuts. Afrobeat is Afrobeat not Afrobeats hence the confusion.”
Tyla’s comments had addressed the common practice of grouping all African music under the Afrobeats label, despite its success and influence. She stated, “This is just so special, but also bittersweet because I know there’s a tendency to group all African artists under Afrobeats. It’s a thing, and even though Afrobeats has run things and has opened so many doors for us, African music is so diverse, it is more than just Afrobeats. I come from South Africa. I represent Amapiano. I represent my culture, and I just want to shout out to all the Afrobeats artists in this category with me.”
Tyla’s speech has sparked controversy, with critics, including Do2dtun, arguing that her comments undermine the genre she was recognized for. Do2dtun also took to Twitter (now X), criticizing what he sees as a misrepresentation of African music genres and questioning the legitimacy of the Afrobeats label.
He wrote, “A few selfish ones renamed an established genre to satisfy their paymasters. Yet again you see why it’s best to let the originators be allowed to educate the world. Tyla winning Best Afrobeats song is a miss in my opinion but how do you say it isn’t when a few added ‘s’ to it.”
“Afrobeats was a quickie set up to a quick paycheck. Now you see why most of your faves stop identifying with it. It was quickly fixed to fix an identity crisis just because the paymasters think it had one when in actual fact it didn’t. Now they define it how a few sold it to them,” he added.