A tale of Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Chimamanda, Tomi Adeyemi

Minaj

More and more every day, things happen that buttress the saying: ‘There’s a time and season for everything.’

Let’s take the case of the American female rappers Nicki Minaj and Cardi B. America used to be known for its multitude of female rappers that included Da Brat, MC Lyte, Yo-Yo, Queen Latifah, Foxy Brown, Lil Kim.

Yet it got to a point American female rap became synonymous with only one act, Minaj, and she held the game down seemingly solely for about seven years.

B

Maybe going by the saying above, it was her time and season, and when it was least expected and from whom it was least expected, Cardi came around and knocked her out by achieving what Minaj didn’t (a Grammy award win and Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers) and is definitely now occupying the throne that was Minaj’s.

And the time and season analogy is now definitely applicable to the Nigerian literary scene and the authors Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Tomi Adeyemi.

Adichie became like an overnight literary sensation when her book, Purple Hibiscus (2003), won the prestigious Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and she became the voice of the Nigerian literary scene. She didn’t rest on her oars and followed PH with other books that include Half Of A Yellow Sun (2006) which won the Orange Prize, The Thing Around Your Neck (2009) and Americanah (2013).

Like Minaj, she solely held down the Nigerian literary sector, easily fending off competition from Sefi Attah, Helen Oyeyemi, Helon Habilah and many others.

Chimamanda

And just when it seemed that nobody could challenge her, Adeyemi has like come out from nowhere like Cardi and can be said at this point to have knocked her out cold.

Adeyemi’s debut book released in 2018, Children Of Blood And Bone, is a New York Times bestseller, is said to have gotten her mouthwatering seven-figure deals in US dollars, comparisons to the current most successful author, J K Rowling, the Harry Potter creator and its sequel, Children Of Virtue And Vengeance (2019), is already out.

And going by Adeyemi’s antecedents, Adichie might really bear the brunt of her emergence as she only became visible by taking on established American author, Nora Roberts, when she accused her of stealing the title of her debut, COBAB.

It was definitely a wild and unjustifiable claim, but it achieved its purpose of getting her name out there and creating awareness for COBAB so it could become successful.

Adeyemi

And those who know how difficult it is for authors to become known in today’s world, no matter how good their writing is, won’t really blame her for taking on Roberts, after all even the great Rowling only found her immense success with the Potter books because some people were trying to get them banned but only created awareness about them instead that led to their unprecedented success.

And if Adeyemi can play as dirty as that, challenging Roberts just to become known, Adichie really has to watch out because she might play even dirtier to remain in the loop.