Laura Adeola Adegbite, known professionally as Shaybo. is a Nigerian-born UK hip-hop artist who has taken the female Nigerian hip-hop world by storm.

In 2022, Shaybo released her famous song, “Crocs” with an incredible music video. Through her lyrics, Shaybo addresses those who have spoken negatively about her life. She begins by singing, “I wear all drip, no fake tings. Read my lips, no paigons. All these b******, they hatin’. Cause it’s money I’m making.” In the society we live in today, looks are glorified especially for creatives and artists, what they wear is always talked about. Through these songs, Shaybo boasts about what she wears, saying it’s all ‘drip’ and not fake. Additionally, it could be assumed the end is alluding to her success as a Nigerian female hip-hop artist which is quite rare as compared to the men. She is beating her chest and bragging about all the money she makes doing what she does best even though people are hating on her. 

Furthermore, Shaybo’s music video is very eye-catching and different from that of other male artists. She takes control of how women are portrayed and not objectifying their bodies. Similar to many male artists’ videos, Shaybo features women dancing throughout hers. However, unlike the other videos, although she is the center of attention, she also joins them to dance rather than just having them dance on her or having them as a work of art to stare at. Moreover, the women are not half-naked but in shorts and tank tops which is very rare for male videos. Regarding the recent in-class discussion about women in music videos, the music video ‘Crocs’ is contrary to the music videos by male artists as they use their platform to objectify women. 

In the assigned readings for this week, a resonating theme was how women were portrayed in male music videos and lyrics as there is already a lack of females in hip-hop. In “Challenging Hegemonic Masculinity in Nigerian Hip Hop: An Evaluation of Gender Representation in Falz the Bahd Guy’s Moral Instruction Album” by Adelaja O. Oriade, the idea of hip-hop lyrics reduced to the obsession with women and sex was discussed. However, Shaybo’s example demonstrates that this is not always true. She uses her platform to talk about her life and even though that may seem selfish for some people, through her lyrics, she’s giving inspiration to others.