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Cassper attacks Woolies for choosing Pharrell over a local act

Cassper Nyovest has received backlash for going on a Twitter rant against Woolworths’ after opting for an international artist instead of a local for their new campaign.

Pharrell Williams was announced as the Style Director at the launch of Woolworths Sustainable T-shirt Design Competition.

The news did not sit well with the ‘Doc Shebeleza hitmaker who said he did not understand how a local artist who could have been paid way less than Pharrell was overlooked in the collaboration.

Am I the only one who thinks corporates like Woolworths should collabo with local designers and artists instead of being us about Pharrel??

He went on:

"As much as I'm a big fan of skate boy P , it's high time we fight for more local content everywhere , not just radio but fashion too I think"

And on:

"Money leaving our country. Corporates would rather take a B class American song & pay 2 mill for it instead of 500k 4 an a class local act."

A lot of people hit back at Cassper including Loyiso Gola who likened Cassper's rant to what happened in America when Trevor Noah was announced the new host of the Daily Show.

Gola said: "@CassperNyovest complaining about Pharrel doing a Woolies campaign is the same as Americans complaining about Trevor hosting the Daily show." tweet has since been deleted.

Yo @CassperNyovest I always see you complain about strange things like Kanye West stealing kwaito. Nobody owns kwaito. Nobody owns rap.

Rapper AKA said that Woolworths has done a lot of campaigns with local artists and basically told Cassper to, in not so many words, do his research before going on a Twitter rant.

How many collaborations/campaigns has Woolworths done with local talent? ..... The answer to that is, way more than any big retailer, he wrote.

He also gave Cassper a few lessons:

Be consistent .... If you're gonna be a "voice" for local artists, designers etc ... 1) Know your story ... 2) Stick to it ....

Cassper then tried to clear himself by saying that he was not speaking about Pharrell per say but about local artists being overlooked by big corporates in general.

This is not about Pharrell. It's about supporting and growing our own industry.

 

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