Oxlade Raises Nigeria`s Misogynistic Bar With Acrobatic Sexual Performance.
In the wee hours of February 8, 2022, Nigeria`s young sonorous singer-songwriter, Oxlade broke the internet with a video of him in an intense sexual activity with an unknown young lady. The video was allegedly leaked by one of his pals, who was getting the details of the acclaimed sexual encounter and decided to record “one for the culture.”
The million dollar question on everyone`s lips however, is why Nigerian Twitter was agog with this leak but the same audience nearly dragged the life out of Tiwa Savage when her sextape leaked a few months ago.
The answer is simple. Everyone asking this question is doing that from a very biased, emotional perspective. The difference is quite clear, “It is a Performance thing!”
Oxlade is a young man, in his early twenties, and already a proper African Rockstar. He`s traveled the world, and has seen female fans basically swoon over him quite a lot.
Statistically, what happens when a sex tape of him doing the same thing everyone else does behind closed doors goes viral on social media?
I honestly do not see any situation in which an Oxlade sextape gets out and his career suffers for it in the short term, except it turns out he`s not very “gifted” or his performance set lacked some fundamental skills.
For Tiwa Savage, however the case might just be a little different albeit unfair that she should have to go through something as horrible. But the fact remains that she is a female leading artist in a country beset with the evil of patriarchy and gender gaps in all ramifications and whenever something like this or even closely related shows up on the internet about her, expect a blowback.
Alas, it`s not the first time or the second that she`s had a sex-related scandal so it`s not surprising when an insensitive generation of listeners choose to attack her character and professionalism over a video that clearly has nothing to do with either.
Apparently, Oxlade`s artistry is encompassing of both music and other forms of the art, therefore to the young patriarch, born and bred in Surulere, Lagos Nigeria, a leaked sextape would amount to nothing more than a couple more million streams.
While we all agree that it`s unfair for the populace to drag Tiwa and let Oxlade go, it`s important to note that the circumstances are miles apart and the average Nigerian male is a patriarch who grew up to learn that sex is a sport that the man should win, a sizeable proportion of the viewers consist of average Nigerian young men who would see the video as what it was intended to be seen; to highlight the young pop star`s proficiency in bed.
What happens when you see a young man in his prime, engaging in this sport with such vigor, skill and finesse? You can rest assured that it will not be an outcry that`ll cause injury to his flaming career. Sure, some will definitely come for him but the general reaction would be to laugh about it, measure his performance and decide which side of the reactionary opinion that they should take.
This is the reality of the Nigerian music situation, the gender gap here is clear, and something needs to be done about it.
However, regarding the release of sex tapes, its important for all artists who`ve stepped into the spotlight to get some mentorship on image and how these slip ups can affect your music business.
The phrase “the internet never forgets”, seems like one vague phrase to the average human, until you need a nomination into a World Economic Forum committee or a World Bank committee and a background check is done, it is an indisputable fact that leaving such explosive data trails on the internet may have adverse on your music career in the long run.
Your data trail on the internet will trail you for life, and if you choose to remain in the public eye, there`s no telling what future damage it may cause.
A good option for the Oxlade`s camp would be to try and scrub this video off the internet as soon as the buzz is over.
Clearly, for an artist who was featured in Rollingstone`s 50 Best Songs of 2020, a sextape is a show of poor business management and recklessness on the part of the artist. This is something that gets on the nerves of an investor, no matter how much profits may be generated.
It is time for pop stars from Africa to start paying attention to paparazzi and how it can propel or disengage their career. All it takes is one twitter mention and the attention of brands are drawn to the misogynistic nature of a stunt like this.
