The Nigerian Popular rapper, Tochukwu Ojogwu, popularly known as Odumodublvck has asserted that Nigerians don’t respect the hip-hop genre and its artistes.

Speaking in a recent interview with the CTRL Room, the ‘Declan Rice’ crooner recounted how organisers didn’t use to offer him seats at award events during his days as a struggling artiste.

He also recounted how he turned down a suggestion from his team to affiliate with afrobeats superstar, Davido, to achieve fame.

He said instead he gravitated toward UK grime stars whose genre aligned with his vision.

Odumodublvck said, “In 2019, someone [in my team] said we should go to Lagos and meet Davido. But I was like, ‘What will Davido do for me? Even if Davido takes me to America and puts me on stage and I’m rapping my stuff, his fans won’t understand because they are afrobeats fans.’

“But these guys: Teezee, BOJ, and Sholz, are the pipeline to the UK market. And those are the closest guys I sound like internationally. So why don’t I follow that route to get to wherever I want to get to?’

“I was like, I don’t need Davido for anything now. Let me follow people that align with my vision. And that was how we just came together and we’re here now. Number one in the country against all odds. Tell them, they’ve to respect that thing. Because we went for an award show and we didn’t even have seats. They don’t respect hip-hop in Nigeria. They don’t respect us.”

The rapper, however, admitted that he conceded to Wizkid’s controversial statement that “hip-hop is dead”, stressing “I was tremendously happy about Wizkid’s statement… Hip-Hop was dead.”