Nigerian singer, Temilade Openiyi, popularly known as Tems has revealed the negative effects of quitting the popular afrobeats genre and choosing R&B.
Tems claimed that because of how much she believed in herself, it didn’t matter if she never achieved “anything or anyone” in the R&B industry.
The singer of the hit song “Essence” claimed that she “just wanted to get a message out.”
She revealed this in an interview with American rapper Kendrick Lamar that was included in the most recent issue of Interview Magazine.
The Oscar-nominated singer claimed that she would not give up because monetary gain was not her objective. She continued by saying she was looking for a particular frequency.
Tems said, “I was prepared to die. I believed in myself so much that I didn’t really care if I never became anything or anyone. I just wanted to get a message out. I wanted to get my frequency out. And I was like, ‘Even if ten people hear this, it’s fine.’ But also along the way, I used to listen to a lot of Nigerian music and I wasn’t getting a lot of spiritual—I love Celine Dion, so, I love that intense feeling of, I’m about to jump off a cliff. That’s how I want my music to feel all the time, and Afrobeats wasn’t necessarily giving me that type of stimulation.”
The songstress said she was advices against transitioning because Nigerians wont like it.
