Tyler condemns afrit grouping following a win at the just concluded MTV VMAs South African singer Tyler has expressed a gratitude for winning the best afrat category with her song water while also stating her concerns about the west Western entertainment industry's tendency to label all African music as afrit just so you know Tyler smash heat water fended off competition from Iris star's last heartbreak song Chris Brown Sensational featuring Lo and Davido Us's ring featuring fields and TS love me J to clinch the award this win also made his tree for Tyler as she becomes the first female African Artist as well as the first South African artist to win a VMA while accepting a award for best affit song at the 2024 MTV video music award Tyler described the win as so sweet so special but also Bitter Sweet take a look guys the Global impact that water has had on the world just proves that African music can be pop music too like this is just so special but also bittersweet because I know there's a tendency to group all African artists under afro beat it's a thing and even though afro beat has run things and has opened so many doors for us African music is so diverse it's more than just afrob be I I come from South Africa I represent I'm a piano I represent my culture and I just want to shout out all the afrat artists in this category with me shout out TS Ira star shout out loj shout out Rema whis bab boy all of us and yeah love you guys Africa to the world stream my album Tyler the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards we had Megan the stallion as the host held at the UBS arena in Queens New York American singer Taylor Swift LED all nominees with 12 nuts followed by a fortnite collaborator post Malon with 11 at the ceremony tayor caught seven wins while post had five including their top win of the night when fortnite was named video of the Year other winners of the night includes Katy Perry Megan the stallion emm Sabrina Carpenter Billy eish Ariana Grande da Lea Caesar Bening Boon Lenny kravit Anita amongst others congratulations to all the winners congratulations um I definitely definitely Lov the speech um a fact that she also gave shout out to Nigerian artist n artist I actually do afro bit um no disrespect to anybody like you say we do like African music and guess what South Africa has been pioneers of great African music from way back even before her generation you know you had to I chaka chaka you had marba you had luy du and then you now had you know the new generation even the nastyy the guy who even passed away um AKA AKA you know you have all these great artists who have come from South Africa very true as well mafik DJ DJ MAF she mentioned that you know we do I'm a piano I come from a place where am a piano is our thing and they discovered am a piano it was just music back in the day um and you know so she she actually needed to put that out you know that we actually do great music don't don't box Us in afrit afrit is not us I just see we just I borrowed this she didn't say it but she knows that she borrowed the sound you know um and we've also taken from the sounds too as well you know we've taken a piano we actually have made piano piano you know at the end of the day but the umbrella is African music you know at the end of the day um so yeah big shout out to her for that speech I really loved it and this goes to the organizers of the show as well that see it's African music not just afro that's what we've been trying to say for the longest time because Tyler's win actually caused an Opa on social media a lot of people were like okay so how is amap piano winning the best affit category so I like the fact that she stated it out there but at the end of the day people are really not happy with a wi I saw a post by um media personality dun who said oh so it's not your category but you still took the award so why are you taking an award for what you didn't do and at the end of the day I'm like when the nominations came out and she was on the nomination there was nothing like oh it's afrit it's I'm a piano now she has won the award let's just commend her and commend all the nominees because if they're doing good and they were nominated it means that their work is being seen out there no definitely I mean a lot of music grad music personal personalities came out to say a lot of things even a came out to say stuff like know Nigerians were like 10 Nigerians were Nom 10 nominations for Nigerians and no Nigerian got anything um but this is also the fact that I mean we look up to We crave for the international recognition from the grammies TOS to the VMAs we Cay for all of this and that's not the focus at the end of the day um is Tyler see what what whatever they want to say about it water is an afrit sound you listen to it you know that this is afrit sound and she has won numerous Awards with that song most the most sorry to cut you short the most recent award she actually won was the global impact award from billbo that was just like two three days ago so if the song wasn't doing good she wouldn't win such an award because and that particular award is supposed to be an honor bestow on someone who has made an impact in the world I don't even think we should be gatekeeping anything afro beats has gone International of you have American Producers producing afro even better than us right now you know so I mean it's all it's the same situation we discussed yesterday when we talked about Beyonce and the country music and gate and the the The Gatekeepers trying to block that's the same thing see Tyler you're African you love afro beats fine enjoy it we love our piano fine we enjoy it ghanians have enjoyed us over time we've enjoyed them back as well so it's all good African music to the so I have just one question did the song Make You Sweat yes okay so let's say it fast [Music]