Nigerian Afrobeats musician and songwriter, Michael Adebayo Olayinka, popularly known as Ruger, has hummed the internet after a now-deleted tweet aimed at women stirred controversy.
In a tweet that has since been removed, the singer made a controversial statement about passengers on his boat trip to Ilashe.
He said, “Anything wey make you enter my boat go Ilashe, your bikini must shift. No be only content you come shoot baby.”
His tweet swiftly sparked criticism from some social media users, with some indicating concern that the singer was encouraging rape culture.
An X (formally Twitter) user, Chika_jones, wrote: “Ruger once sang – “bounce your body or we bounce you out. Omo no scream no too shout.” I liked the song, and I rationalised the lines. Line 1 – could just be ‘normal’ Naija party talk. Line 2 – could just be sex.
“Then he tweeted and deleted this. Rape culture is insidious.”
@aziening said, “Love that Ruger is allowing himself to be egged on by “fans” on this app. They have nothing to lose. He has the remains of a profession that hasn’t even really taken off. When e red, they’ll make noise for him for two days and move on. He should go on.”
Additionally, in a new post on X, Ruger asserted that a member of his team removed the post.
His words were, “I didn’t remove anything ooo. I just woke up and found out someone on my team removed my tweet. They are paranoid, haha. I go retweet am "any girl wey I carry go ilashe go shift bikini. No, be only content you come shoot for here, baby.”
In another post, he wrote, “Consent is key.”
It was gathered that Ruger recently parted ways with his former label, accusing them of using his money to support up-and-coming artists, saying he couldn’t go through that for five more years.