Olurotimi Akinosho, an American-born Nigeria actor and singer recently claimed that he introduced afrobeats to America and the international stage at large.
The entertainer who is known by his stage name Rotimi, while at an interview recounted he majorly contributed to the rise and popularity of afrobeats in the international scenes. he mentioned that he helped Wizkid with his first show in America in 2012, according to him this led to the wide acceptance of afrobeats on international stages. According to Rotimi, the 2012 show was Wizkid’s first visit to America and they met and he offered to assist him with his 500 seater capacity concert, and later they got talking in the hotel room.
At the interview, Rotimi recalled telling Wizkid his dream of being the most biggest rated artist and actor in the world, which in response Wizkid said he had plans of taking over the world. Rotimi said ” back in 2012 when Wizkid first came to America, they had found out about me musically because one of my songs had crossed over back home and this was before afrobeats, instagram and all that, i don’t know how they found it but but when they got here , they asked me to open up for Wizkid, it was his first time in America and they were doing 200 seaters, this was 2012, to the point where i got off the plane and wiz was like ‘hey bro, let me help you with your bags’
“It was really like we were on a mission and i’ll always love him for that because he knew what he was going to be, so we were doing 500 seater, i performed in front of the crowd and the conversation we had was like in 10 years, i want to be the best actor, best artist, best this and that, and he was just like ‘ i am taking over the world bro’ that was his answer”
He asserted that it took him five years to recognize himself as the bridge between afrobeats and RnB, starting that after realizing this, it marked the beginning of his hit songs.
” I saw the wave in 2012, then after that i just started falling back into doing RnB, it took me five years to really find out who Rotimi was and remembering the conversation i had with Wizkid in 2012 and in 2017, that’s when it hit me tlike, ‘ bro just be you’ you are the definition of African-American, so be the bridge of RnB and afrobeats all in one, and that’s when the hit records started dropping in”
At this point Rotimi said he could proudly proclaim himself as being the person who brought afrobeats to the international stage. ” i can comfortably say i brought afrobaets to America, then one dance with Drake and Wiz came out, i am not saying it was because of me, no, but the timing, the sound…i can proudly say that i did that, but it started with that conversation in the hotel room like bro let’s just be true to whop we truly are, like it’s cool to be the Africanbecause growing up it was just like ‘all of you are dirty” he added.
