By Leshi Adebayo
Award-winning entertainment journalist, Joey Akan has revealed that the success of the Nigerian music industry is all thanks to the influx of cybercrime.
Akan made this known via a tweet on Thursday, explaining that the history of Afrobeats won’t be complete without the financial contribution of internet fraudsters better known as ‘Yahoo boys’.
He wrote, “Afrobeats Hall of Fame will never be complete without honourary mentions to Yahoo boys who funded and kept alive an industry with no institutional or corporate funding.
“It’s a reality we hate to admit, but huge parts of Nigerian music history and success were built on cybercrime.”
Expectedly, the tweet which comes at a time when the country is witnessing a rise in cybercrime has received several reactions in the last 22 hours. Here are some comments from netizens:
@ProperBredrin said, “Same way the yankee hip hop industry was funded by drug money.”
@hypemanoscar noted, “Even nigeria economy is most funded and held down with fraud money. Go to clubs, bars and lounges, only yahoo boys balls more car dealers sells more cos yahoo boys patronize them. Boutiques have hiked the prices of their wears cos yahoo boys just picks & pay without haggling.”
Meanwhile, this is not the first time Nigerian music industry will be linked to cybercrime. Sometime in 2018, legendary musician, Dapo Adebanjo popularly known as D’Banj said that most record labels in Nigeria were owned by Internet fraudsters at the time.
The award winning singer said most of the new generation record labels were founded by wealthy ‘Yahoo boys’ who knew nothing about music.
