Florence Ifeoluwa Otedola, popularly known as DJ Cuppy is an international disc jockey, record producer and singer from Nigeria. She is the daughter of billionaire, oil business tycoon and philanthropist, Femi Otedola and billionaire business woman wife Nana Otedola. DJ Cuppy was born November 11th, 1992.
Beyond her career in music and entertainment, she is a philanthropist and her foundation, the Cuppy foundation was launched in July 2018. In a gold Gala put together by the foundation in 2019, a sum of 5 billion naira was raised for save the children initiative.
The stage name Cuppy came out of her love for cupcakes, red velvet to be précised which is the name of her record label.
She rose to prominence in 2014 and has continued to dominate the music industry with her disc jockey skills. It is clear that she is not reliant on her family wealth as the billionaire heiress looks to build her own name and empire.
Disc jockeying for her was just a hobby back in college but soon grew into a full time career path for her. The highlight of her musical career started when she enrolled for a master’s degree in music business at the New York University, USA. She interned at Jay-Z’s Roc Nation headquarters where she got firsthand experience on international music industry. In 2014, she launched her mix tape titled ‘House of cuppy ’. The mix tape featured afrobeats influenced songs and house type music featuring artists like Tiwa Savage, Kcee, Dr. Sid, Wizkid etc.
In 2015, she launced her second mix tape titled ‘house of cuppy 2’ featuring songs by Olamide, Psquare, Yemi alade etc. Afterwards, she had her first tour called ‘The cuppy takes frica tour’ where she toured eight African countries. In 2017, Cuppy made her singing debut with her first official song ‘Greenlight’. In March 2018, she released a second single titled ‘vybe’. She also released an album ‘Original copy’.
In addition to her music and disc jockey career, Cuppy is a music producer, owning the Red velvet music group record label founded in 2013 and launched in 2014. Her record label bridges the gap between Africa and the western world as she has branches of her company in Lagos, New york, London and Los Angeles.
Cuppy has received several recognitions, nominations and awards, below are a few:
In 2014 she was branded a Nigerian tourism ambassador
In 2015 she featured in Forbes woman Africa magazine
In 2015 she featured in on the cover of January 2015 The Guardian Life Magazine
In 2015, she won the won the Nigerian entertainment award for best female DJ
She was featured on the cover page on the 10th June 2019 Glitz Africa
Her endorsements
On March 20th 2018, she became one of Pepsi’s DJ ambassadors
In 2019, Samsung made her it’s brand ambassador
June 5 2019, Global citizen education made her ambassador
She signed an endorsement deal with Tiger beer as an ambassador in June 2019
Save The Children, UK ambassador
On March 11th 2019, she announced her partnership with Maybelline as an “IT GIRL”. This she signed with plans to use the role to empower women and drive inclusiveness while projecting Africa to the world.
In October 2021, the DJ and singer revealed she was back to school for a third degree in African studies. In a post informing her fans, she explained she had resumed classes in the University of Oxford and so would not be active on social media for the period of her studies. She added she will also be quitting drinking to however concentrate on studies.
This will be her 3rd degree in 6 years. She has a first degree in business and economics from King’s College London in 2014, a master’s degree in music business from New York University in 2015.
Over the months, Cuppy has tweeted countlessly regretting her decision of going in for a 3rd degree as it has affected her progress in the music industry. She has continuously lamented about her studies and on a recent tweet on March 2nd, 2022 she explained she had considered dropping out of Oxford University. She admitted to struggling with her academics. She added it felt like she wasn’t good enough.
Her constant tweets about her academic struggles attracted a reprove by one of her followers. Replying to her tweet, he posted “Cuppy u make goin to Oxford University seem like a bid deal but on a real it’s not; no doubt it’s a prestigious Uni. But that’s that. By the way ur platform should be used in promoting more of ur charitable works, not just cruise & ur personal life. Good luck in ur studies though”.
Cuppy bagged a radio presenting job with the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC. In December 2021, the broadcasting station disclosed the DJ was to join the 1Xtra crew to host the station’s brand new weekend breakfast show. According to NAIJA NEWS, BBC Radio 1 while announcing the development in a statement released on their tweeter account wrote, “And, congratulations to Cuppy who will join 1Xtra to host the station’s brand new weekend breakfast show on Sundays (7am -11am) from Sunday 9 January 2022! Congratulations @cuppymusic and welcome to the 1Xtra family”.
Cuppy confirmed her appointment with BBC through her LinkedIn page. She shared a picture using the BBC 1Xtra logo with the caption: “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Radio presenter at BBC!”
Despite the recent academic toils the DJ and singer have experienced, I would say she is relentless and has been doing great in other areas. She has bagged and is still Bagging jobs and building a portfolio for herself, other than basking on her birth right of billionaire heiress and depending on her family wealth.
This is all I have for you today, let me know what you think about her academic struggles. Do you think she will eventually pull through with her 3rd degree, or consider dropping out in the long run?