Nigerian singer, Azeez Adeshina Sanyaolu better known by his stage name, Naira Marley has refuted claims that he is a bad influence on music lovers especially his fans who are largely youthful.
In an interview on Accra-based Hitz FM, Naira Marley said he believes his controversial lifestyle and craft have positively influenced the lives of music lovers in Nigeria and across the world.
He claimed, prior to his emergence on the music scenes, young people in Nigeria could not live their lives the way they wanted and had to hide their true identifies for fear of being tagged as miscreants.
But his lifestyle, since his breakthrough, has inspired them and boosted their confidence to freely live their lives and express and carry themselves in ways they feel comfortable.
He added that his rise to stardom doing what many abhorred has inspired many others including budding musicians to believe in themselves and strive for higher heights regardless of their backgrounds.
“I like to think I have been a positive influence. A lot people didn’t really have the freedom to dress back in my country. Now, they are free. A lot of girls really wanted to show the body and twerk. They weren’t really twerking until I came into the game. So I like to think I’m here to make them feel free. There are a lot of people making money from me, there are a lot of being themselves, there are a lot of musicians coming up looking up to me. There are people who saw me come from nowhere and now, they have the belief in themselves,” he stated.
Naira Marley is known in the music industry for his use of vulgar words in songs and sexually explicit music videos as well as his advocacy particularly through his music for bad habits such as smoking, alcoholism among others.
Speaking on this, the singer said he does not see anything wrong with his craft and advocacy. He stated that although he advocates for such habits, he cannot influence anybody to adopt them.
“I have two of my guys here. I have influenced them not to wear belt so they don’t wear belt but I’m trying to influence them to smoke but they don’t smoke. So I can’t really be a bad influence on anybody. I’m a Marlian. I’m free. I don’t really think I’m doing anything bad anyway but if they say I’m a bad influence then it is cool. At least I’m influencing people. Even if you say I’m the reason, the world is bad, I accept it”.
