Nigerian dancehall act Raybekah gets ‘Uncensored’ advances

Nigerian dancehall diva Raybekah has to brace herself before opening the direct messages across social media platforms.

The emerging artiste, who is forecast as one of the next big acts on Lagos' music scene, says she has been dealing with a lot of flirty fans, especially females.

"These females have been sending me messages asking me out on dates and making advances in the most extreme ways," Raybekah said.

The 24-year-old, whose birth name is Rebecca Chinonso Arinola, said that while she appreciates the support, she is receiving feedback that is "uncensored and out of this world", especially to her dancehall tracks. Seeing the stream of messages, she decided to declare her sexual preference to her more than 300,000 Instagram followers.

Raybekah said one particular fan experience became the inspiration for her latest dancehall fusion track, Uncensored.

"This girl said she loved me, and wanted us to get together but then she wanted to have sex with me and I was like, 'No. Yo girl ... I love boys!'. Immediately I went offline, that was it for me," she said. "I ended up listening to a beat, as usual I do a little freestyle, and I kept on singing that line, 'I love D, I love D', and the rest of the lyrics followed."

Track Added

The track has since been added to the Jamaican Garrison Christmas album, which is co-produced by Contractor Music and features popular Ghanaian act Shatta Wale, as well as trending dancehall artistes like Squash, Popcaan and Chronic Law.

The singer-deejay and songwriter said that she was first introduced to dancehall by her father.

"He is the reason I love it. One of the first songs he played for me was Sean Paul's We Be Burnin' and I also listened to the music of South African legend Lucky Dube," she said.

Raybekah has been doing reggae and dancehall music in Nigeria for approximately nine years, originally recording and performing conscious and inspirational songs.

She explained, "But then I started to open my mind to Spice and Dexta Daps among others and I knew instantly how I wanted to do music ... to mix the energetic and old school flavour with a bad gyal vibe."

It's that character Raybekah believes fascinated the Jamaican producers.

"I don't know garrison but felt like I needed to be on that album for my 'hardcore-ness' and I agreed so I could feel even more part of the creative Jamaican music family. I'm adding that sexy Nigerian girl vibe with a Jamaican sound. I love Jamaica," she said. "On my Instagram Live, the maximum numbers are from there."