Armon Wiggins must have known his comment on Tyla would have caused discourse among X users. And yet he chose to share his thoughts shortly after the amapiano princess made a rousing speech while accepting her MTV VMA for Best Afrobeats artist.
“The global impact that Water has had on the world just proves that African music can be pop music too,” said the 22-year-old singer.
“This is just so special, but also bittersweet because I know there’s a tendency to group all African artists under Afrobeats. It’s a thing, and even though Afrobeats has run things and has opened so many doors for us, African music is so diverse. It’s more than just Afrobeats.”
She added: “I come from South Africa. I represent amapiano. I represent my culture, and I just want to shout out [to] all the Afrobeats artists in this category with me.”
What was meant to be a moment for the Water star was minimised by the YouTuber who completely lost the meaning behind her message.
Taking to X, he said: “Hey I don’t think I like TYLA’s personality I think someone needs to check her cus she doesn’t understand American Culture AT ALL..she almost gives off entitled or uppity African I don’t know how to explain it but it’s very off-putting and it’s almost like she expects people to just fall to her feet.”
Hey I don’t think I like TYLA’s personality I think someone needs to check her cus she doesn’t understand American Culture AT ALL..she almost gives off entitled or uppity African idk how to explain it but it’s very off putting and it’s almost like she expects people to just fall…
— Armon Wiggins (@ArmonWiggins) September 12, 2024
Diehard Tyla fans (Tygers) and fellow South Africans came to her defence and quickly put Wiggins in his place.
An X user set him straight and responded: “Now that it, one of y’all has finally said it out loud! This is exactly why u don’t like her. You guys don’t understand that Tyla deserves to be in the rooms she’s in right now. Y’all want her to keep her head down because she made it ‘out of Africa where she lived among lions & tigers’?”
Now that it, one of y’all has finally said it out loud! This is exactly why u don’t like her. You guys don’t understand that Tyla deserves to be in rooms she’s in right now. Y’all want her to keep her head down cz she made it “out of Africa where she lived among lions & tigers”? https://t.co/LIy9N06uIG
— Skye Sehahabane (@Skye_Sehahabane) September 12, 2024
Check out some other comments below:
I don’t think the world (BAs) were ready for an African popstar. And Tyla being Coloured, with no impoverished background— just a pretty girl from Joburg with all that confidence, arriving when there’s a massive gap in the market, proudly carrying her heritage is a mindfuck https://t.co/56IHeVGkXI
— Thee_Fierce_Cee (@Nomaswazi_11) September 12, 2024
Tyla don’t do nothing but look pretty, sing and dance nice and represent for Africa…yall are the problem if you have an issue with that https://t.co/xGQkT5j1QH pic.twitter.com/XXG834cOtU
— Reese (stranded at a ferrari strategy meeting ) (@fasttcar) September 12, 2024
There is perceived behavior black Americans expect Africans to act ; humble, pushover, timid, poor and primitive. Tyla is very self confident, bold and knows what she wants. And black Americans are like how dare is Tyla acting different than how their perceptions of Africans are. https://t.co/dTD1xU0Os6
— Favourite (@dontfcukaround1) September 12, 2024
Words:Fame Frenzy
