Gospel singer Gaise Baba has taken to social media to call for fair treatment of gospel and faith-based music at The Headies awards.
The ‘No Turning Back’ hitmaker, via a statement shared on his social media, recounted his long history with the awards, noting he first attended in 2012.
While acknowledging The Headies as the most recognised music ceremony in Nigeria, the singer said gospel records are often confined to “Inspirational” or “Gospel” categories rather than judged purely on artistic merit across mainstream ones.
He highlighted a personal experience from the previous year: after being nominated in the Inspirational Music category for his 2024 single Particularly (featuring Tope Alabi), the category was not presented on stage despite nominees attending the ceremony. Gaise Baba described this as disregard for the creatives involved.
The singer argued that a rap song remains rap regardless of its subject matter, whether faith, money or otherwise and urged awards bodies to honour music for its craft before filtering by theme.
“A rap record is a rap record. It does not stop being rap because of what the artiste chose to rap about. Whether the record is about money, fame, sex, debauchery, or faith, the craft, pen game, cadence, delivery, and the flow are what make it a rap record, not the subject matter,” the letter added.
He closed by questioning whether any recent records had matched the cultural impact of tracks such as Favour or No Turning Back II.