SerpApi.Org
Coming back after a three-year hiatus, singer and saxophonist Masego’s fans should be raving over his latest album, “Fix Your Face.” Instead, they’re going off on him on social media due to comments he made during a recent concert appearance. Now, the backlash he’s facing has made him a main character on social media. Let’s get into it!
The clip comes from Masego’s recent appearance at the Strictly Soul R&B music festival in Cape Town, South Africa. Before he started singing his popular song, “Lady, Lady,” he remarked that only the South African crowd knows how to pronounce his stage name properly.
“Thank you for knowing how to say my actual name, ‘Ma-SEH-h0.’ I don’t know what they’re talking about in America. I don’t know what these ni***s talking about,” he said.
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His words echoed similar comments he made at another outdoor concert, where he again called out Americans for fumbling the pronunciation of his name.
As the clip made the rounds on social media, many of his American fans were quick to call him out, producing several receipts of him introducing himself as “Masego” over the years.
“So Masego isn’t pronounced ma-say-go?! Why is he just now saying something? Tf lol,” wrote one user on X/Twitter.
One user on TikTok noted: “You’re coming across as one of those uppity Africans who don’t like Black people; that’s how it’s coming across…He has said in countless interviews—he has pronounced it ‘Masego.'”
Others pointed out that it’s not a good idea to criticize your fan base when you’re trying to sell records.
“So where did ‘Ma-SEH-ho’ come from, sir? If you would’ve pronounced your name ‘Ma-SEH-ho,’ we would’ve been calling you ‘Ma-SEH-ho.’ And I understand there are people who mispronounce things; it happens. Sh*t happens. But it’s not a good look for you when you just released an album and then going on tour and bashing the very people who even put you in the limelight,” TikTok user Namena Bojang-Martin said.
She continued: “So please just be careful…You don’t just switch up years later and expect people to follow suit and then try to blame us for mispronouncing your name.”
The truth of the matter is: all of these users are correct. In fact, just days before he released his album, the “Tadow” singer released a promotional video on his official TikTok in which he once again pronounced his name “Ma-se-go” several times. What makes this situation even more interesting is that the name is derived from South Africa, though the singer, who’s legally known as Micah Davis, is Jamaican-American.
As a result, some of his fans have deleted his music altogether. Others have chosen to make light of the situation, creating viral memes that call him by a completely different name.
“Masego. Masago. Moscato. Mosquito. Idc. Wrap this discourse up by end of Tadow,” wrote one user on Threads.
Added another: “Names I’ve seen people call him: Monestat. Monster mash. Medium sized. Melodramatic. Mastodon. Millie rock. Montserrat. Montessori. Mama say mama sa mama kusa. Please. Guys. My sides. And South Africans finding out he’s not South African and also pronouncing Masego wrong is peak hilarity. I promise we are so collectively unserious. It’s glorious!”
One other person invoked the spirit of “Girlfriends,” writing on Threads: “So Marrakesh wants us to say it like what again? Don’t make me activate my Toni Childs memory because Maticulus ain’t never said his name like that.”
