Cape Town — American rapper, Cardi B, has come to the defence of South African music star, Tyla, following the backlash she received following the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards.
Tyla won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Afrobeats for her hit song, Water, and caused an unexpected stir on social media as she went on stage to collect her award. The award was awarded by American artists Halle and Lil Nas X.
Some fans thought she had pushed her assistant who was walking behind her as she walked towards the stage, when she was just informing her that she did not need to walk further. Once she got on stage and received the award, she complained about how heavy it was, as she did when she received her Billboard award just a few days earlier.
Before she started her thank you speech, she asked Lil Nas X to hold the award for her, but many had mistakenly thought she asked Halle, which caused an outrage on X.
.@Tyllaaaaaaa wins her first MTV VMA Award! pic.twitter.com/ahFhAFGW1T
— Tyla Club (@TylaClub) September 12, 2024
In the wake of this “incident,”, American rapper, Joe Budden and YouTuber Armon Wiggins claimed that Tyla was an “entitled and uppity African” and that he did not like her vibe and personality.
“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 to her feet,” Wiggins wrote on X.
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
Taking to her X Space, Cardi B came to the defence of Tyla following the comments made by Budden and Wiggins, saying it was ridiculous for people to be bullying someone like Tyla, who exudes unapologetic confidence and hardly causes any trouble in her life.
“Tyla wishes she never won that f**king VMA award. If she would have known it would have brought so much hate, so much criticism. I bet she was crying that night,” she said.
“The internet is insufferable. The way you guys will take a picture, take a moment, and make it something that it’s not, and then just crush somebody. You all criticise so much that you are not even noticing you are bullying this girl, and if you f**ken think about it, you don’t have a motherf**king reason to, but you are making this a reason because you already don’t f**king like her for whatever reason. You all are doing too much and it’s too much,” she said in a passionate rant.
She added that it was clear that Tyla was asking Lil Nas X to hold the award, adding that she’s asked other presenters to hold the award for her too because the awards are very heavy, weighing up to 10 pounds (3kgs).
Cardi B condemned the hate against Tyla from Americans who hate international artists who are simply trying to make it on the international stage.
Cardi B defends Tyla on her X Space. Respect to Cardi 🇿🇦
*Explicit language
🧵(1) pic.twitter.com/rVtlXCTv5g— Tyrone Prins (@itsTyronePrins) September 17, 2024
Picture: X/@cardinetwork
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
