A reggae and dancehall artiste, Chinagorom Onuoha, popularly known as African China, has said that he and his fellow artistes who held sway in the early 2000s ‘pushed’ the music industry to where it is now.

Speaking in an interview with Saturday Beats, China said, “Collaboration is something we cannot rule out in the industry. But, things have changed, and I understand. However, I don’t like the fact that when younger artistes see the people that laid the foundation (of the industry), they don’t respect them.

“They don’t know what we went through. These days, it is easier to stream one’s songs on digital music platforms. Before, those sites were not accessible to Nigerians. Back then, we would go to cyber cafes to do things like that.

“Then, people were not paying attention. We were just trying to make them love Nigerian music. In those days, we were competing with mega American artistes such as 2pac Shakur, P Diddy, Jenifer Lopez, R Kelly, and Busta Rhymes. We were not even competing with fellow Nigerian artistes, because we were all united in trying to push the industry to where it is today.”

The ‘Mr President’ singer added that older artistes were not asking the young artistes for money, but respect.

He added, “We are not asking the young artistes to give us money, but to respect us, if not for our age, but at least for the sacrifices we made for the industry.”