Cuppy

Cuppy is the stage name of Florence Ifeoluwa Otedola, a Nigerian DJ and producer from Lagos. She grows up in Lagos, spending six years in Ilupeju before moving to Ikeja, where she attends Grange School, and then relocates to London for her GCSEs and A-Levels. She is the daughter of Nigerian businessman Femi Otedola.

Education

Cuppy studies business and economics at King’s College London, graduating in July 2014. She later earns a master’s degree in music business from New York University in 2015.

DJ career and releases

In 2014, she is resident DJ at the MTV Africa Music Awards in Durban. She also performs at the Tatler and Christie’s Art Ball in London and at the Financial Times Luxury Summit in Mexico City. That year she releases House of Cuppy, her first compilation mix, in London and Lagos before launching it in New York. The mix features EDM-style remixes of songs by leading afropop artists. She also launches Red Velvet Music Group, a London-based music management and content production business.

In 2015, she releases House of Cuppy II. She is named the official DJ for the Oil Barons Charity in Dubai and becomes the first African act to perform at the event. She also interns at Jay-Z’s Roc Nation later that year. In 2016, she is resident DJ for MTV2’s Uncommon Sense with Charlamagne Tha God.

Her first official single, “Green Light”, appears in 2017 and features Tekno. She follows it with “Vybe” featuring Sarkodie in 2018, “Currency” featuring L.A.X., “Werk” featuring Skuki, “Abena” with Kwesi Arthur, and “Gelato” featuring Zlatan. In 2020, she releases her first studio album, Original Copy. She describes her sound as “Neo-Afrobeats”, combining electro house and Afrobeats.

Broadcasting and media

Cuppy presents the “Cuppy Takes Africa” tour in 2015, a first DJ tour across eight African cities: Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa. The tour includes performances, artist collaborations and charitable engagements supported by GTB Bank and the Dangote Foundation, and later airs on Fox Life Africa as an eight-episode documentary series in 2016. She also produces two tracks, “Vibe” and “The way I am”, for Young Paris’s Afrobeats EP.

In May 2020, she becomes host of Africa Now Radio on Apple Music Beats 1.

Philanthropy and ambassador roles

Cuppy launches the Cuppy Foundation in 2018. In November 2019, the foundation organises the Gold Gala and raises over N5bn for the Save the Children initiative, with donations from Dangote and her father. She is appointed tourism ambassador for Nigeria’s “Fascinating Nigeria” campaign in 2014. She later becomes a Pepsi DJ ambassador, an official DJ ambassador for Pepsi in 2018, a Global Citizen Education Ambassador, and an ambassador for Save the Children UK.

Recognition

In 2015 and 2016, she is featured in Forbes Woman Africa and on the cover of Guardian Life. In 2020, she is inducted into Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30 class.