“I was prepared to die” – Tems

Temilade Openiyi, also known as Tems, a Grammy-winning Nigerian singer, has claimed that she was prepared to face serious penalties when she abandoned afrobeats, the country’s most popular music, in favor of R&B.

Tems stated that she was so confident in herself that she didn’t care if she never became anything or anyone in R&B.

The singer explained that she “just wanted to get a message out.”

She revealed this in an interview with American rapper Kendrick Lamar, which was published in the most recent issue of Interview Magazine.

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.”

READ MORE: “Why I Braid My Hair” – Adekunle Gold

She claimed that everyone she sought counsel from at the time advised her to perform afrobeats, saying, “The only way you can do this is Afrobeats.” It’s not that your music is horrible; it simply does not suit in Nigeria. Nigerians despise this.”

The Oscar-nominated singer stated that she would not give up because money was not her ultimate goal. She went on to say that she is “chasing a frequency.”