Afrobeats singer Inetimi Alfred Timaya Odon, a.k.a Timaya has said there was no credibility in Nigerian music awards.
Timaya who was speaking against the back of the recent Grammy Awards that shunned Nigerian artists, said the home grown awards are not credible enough to attract goodwill from the general music audience.
“If we have a homegrown award that is credible, people would gravitate towards it. But for now, whether you like it or not, Grammy is still Grammy. We don’t have to back down [because Nigerian artists lost this year]. We are going again,” Timaya said in an interview with The Beat FM Lagos.
“Is it the Hip-hop awards, Hip TV awards [The Headies]? I don’t even know. They are not credible either. They are even worse than the Grammys.”
Speaking on his musical development he added that he cut his teeth working with rapper Edris Abdulkareem.
“I was a backup singer for Eedris Abdulkareem for 3 years. I gathered what I learnt from there and went back to Port Harcourt. I realised that with the knowledge that I have, I’m not promoting [my music] from Port Harcourt but Lagos even though I was living in Port Harcourt. Because to live in Lagos at that point was too expensive for me. Even to do a promotion.
“So, I needed to go back and start from my foundation. I left Port Harcourt after I blew. Even Burna Boy, I told him he had to leave Port Harcourt. If you blow up in a place, you have to leave there and love them from afar.
“Eedris Abdulkareem will always be my boss but we don’t talk… Not like we are quarrelling.”
