Afrobeats title ‘King of Afrobeats’. Which seems fitting – as the son of a billionaire businessman, he loves to make a grand entrance. Last night, when Davido arrived in Accra, a presidential SUV motorcade escorted him from the airport, and the star waved to astonished passers-by from the sunroof of his Range Rover Evoque. We’re promised a brief interview before his show, but it won’t be easy. Dozens of fans, friends and journalists fight for the king’s attention. <strong>The</strong>re are elaborate handshakes, “Yooooo!”s, clinking glasses. When finally <strong>The</strong> <strong>Red</strong> <strong>Bulletin</strong> is granted an audience in his tent, Davido excitedly tells us about the success of Afrobeats, the West African pop genre that has taken over the world’s music charts in recent years. “It’s our new oil,” he says of the genre’s economic potential. “When I lived in America, being African wasn’t cool. <strong>The</strong> first thing you’d hear about Africa is scam and poverty. Now people talk about the culture, the food. Now everybody wants to make African music.” After only three minutes, Davido’s sister is pulling him away – it’s time to get on stage. But first she puts her hand on his neck and summons a small group to gather around him in a circle. “Praise the lord,” she shouts, theatrically. “You, David, are blessed, you are favoured, and you are going to kill it. Amen.” <strong>The</strong>re’s applause, hugs, cheering. Supermodel and Davido fan Naomi Campbell is part of the prayer circle. Following the singer and his entourage towards the main stage, she tells us, “<strong>The</strong>re’s such an appetite for Africa. Finally, the world has woken up and realised there’s a beautiful continent it has ignored. But the best thing is, [Africa] didn’t need us. Afrobeats doesn’t need us. We need them.” Afrobeats (not to be confused with Afrobeat – a blend of jazz and funk popularised by Nigerian musician Fela Kuti in the 1970s) is an umbrella term for contemporary pop music from West Africa, predominantly Nigeria and Ghana. Its artists mix rap and R&B with syncopated dancehall rhythms and local genres such as highlife and jùjú to create sweet, lighthearted songs that make it hard to stand still. <strong>The</strong> wider world discovered the sound in 2016 through Canadian superstar Drake’s hit single One Dance, which had elements of Afrobeats and featured one of the scene’s biggest names, Nigerian artist Wizkid. At the time, One Dance became Spotify’s most played song ever, with more than a billion individual streams. Ever since, Afrobeats has been on everybody’s lips. Numerous rap and R&B artists, from Snoop Dogg to Chris La Même Gang 32
“I’ve never consciously tried to incorporate Afrobeats into my music. It just comes naturally” Yxng Bane Yxng Bane (centre) recently visited his father’s family in the Congo to meet up with local music legend Adolphe Dominguez
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- Page 25 and 26: ”Now I want to go to Australia an
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- Page 29 and 30: Words FLORIAN OBKIRCHER Photography
- Page 31: Afrobeats “When I lived in Americ
- Page 35 and 36: Afrobeats Brown, have experimented
- Page 37 and 38: “My daughter is growing up in a w
- Page 39 and 40: Afrobeats “[Drinking and smoking]
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