Michael Ugochukwu Steven, the veteran Nigerian rapper, who is popularly known as Ruggedman, has claimed that a lot of “talentless people” are now hiding behind the Afrobeats banner.

According to him, the term Afrobeats is for talentless people.

“When you ask me what Afrobeats is, I would say Afrobeats is what a lot of talentless people hide behind,” Ruggedman said in a candid interview with Chude Jideonwo.

“They said, ‘Afrobeats to the world.’ I said, ‘No. It’s some artists to the world.’ It’s not the Afrobeats [genre], it’s some artists.”

He also revealed that it is hurting when people tell him on social media that his time as an artist has passed “but what I said to myself is whoever he or she [the troll] is listening to right now is inspired by me.”