Dipo Olowookere
By Ighoyota Samuel
Last week, the entertainment industry in Nigeria was agog with presence of American hip-hop artiste, Cardi B. She is the acclaimed best female rap artiste in the world.
Cardi B, who is in a relationship with Offset (one of the guys from the group called MIGOS), who has his roots in the Africa, took the opportunity to explore all she could lay her hands on during the visit.
Although, it must have cost a fortune inviting her for a show in Nigeria, but Nigerians saw a different scenario compare with what they were used to especially when foreign artistes are invited to the country (the norm was from the airport to the show and back to the airport), but Cardi B gave Nigeria more.
Firstly, Cardi B, being a world music icon, commands millions of followers on social media and also, she is a major influencer in the music industry worldwide. The first thing she did was to do a cover of one of the best songs that has ever come of Nigeria by a local act, Davido’s Fall.
She released a remix of the song on all of her social media handles, telling the world of the abundance of talents in Nigeria. This was not part of the plans by the organisers, but she did that absolutely free.
The importance of this is, it will open a new market for the Nigerian music market internationally as many international artistes will be interested in featuring the Nigerian artistes, thereby further showcasing the Nigerian Afro beat to the world
Secondly, Cardi B went on to give a thumb up to the different delicacies in Nigeria. She was very interested in tasting the Nigerian jollof rice, which is mostly compared with its Ghanaian counterpart despite originating from Senegal. The American rapper uploaded a live video of the local food on her social media handles.
This has a lot of impact on our tourism industry as most foreign tourists, who are scared of visiting the many tourist centres in Nigeria, because of the kind of food and other reasons, will be rest assured that the country’s food is one of the best as attested to by Cardi B.
Also, she visited an orphanage home in Nigeria and was amazed by the philanthropic nature of Nigerians that she wouldn’t have believed if she was told because the world has a different perception about Nigerians and the country, no thanks to the media analogy of the country.
She quickly debunked the misconception as she claims Nigerians have been good to her. Also, she was taken on a tour of the country’s centre of excellence (Lagos State) where she was amazed by the different designs by Zenith Bank of Nigeria. She was so pleased that she took and uploaded pictures of the designs of Zenith Bank, giving the financial institution a dose of free publicity.
She also went clubbing at one of the best clubs in the city where she was so impressed that she started spraying cash on the dancers. One of the eyewitnesses said the money she spent that night should be over N5 million. The most interesting thing about the clubbing was the fact that as the Disk Jockey was playing the best of Nigerian songs, she was seen dancing with the Nigerian artistes and uploading their photos which is a way of showcasing them to the world.
One of the greatest surprises was when Davido gifted her champagne, she thanked the music act, but she insisted that she’s okay with the Nigerian Guinness stout (free advertisement for Guinness Nigeria). She, however, attested to the fact the Nigerian stout was good as she only took one bottle and that got her knocked (intoxicated) her.
In summary, Cardi B did well in showcasing our cultural heritage to the world and this will help the tourism industry as she did more of publicity for the country than what the organisers of the show bargained for.
