The Red Bulletin April 2020

Afrobeats
Brown, have experimented with the
sound and collaborated with the likes of
Davido, Burna Boy and Mr Eazi. In July
last year, Beyoncé predominantly picked
Afrobeats artists for her soundtrack
album The Lion King: The Gift, saying,
“I wanted it to be authentic to what is
beautiful about the music in Africa.”
It’s rumoured Bey and her husband
Jay-Z will be among the celebrities
visiting Accra for the Year of Return,
a governmental initiative encouraging
African diasporans to come to Ghana and
celebrate the continent, 400 years after
slavery began in America. There’s a buzz
as market stalls along busy Oxford Street
sell bootleg T-shirts reading “Welcome
to Accra, Bey”, and many open-air bars
blast her tunes alongside local anthems
such as Mr Eazi’s Tony Montana. (Sadly,
the rumours ultimately prove untrue.)
Afro Nation is the biggest event
planned for the Year of Return. Following
its debut in Portugal in July 2019, the
organisers are bringing the four-day
festival to Accra’s Laboma Beach Resort,
attracting 18,000 music fans and artists
from all across Africa and beyond. As
well as local dons such as Wizkid and
Davido, acts including Tanzanian rap
duo Navy Kenzo, Congolese powerhouse
Innoss’B and Moonchild Sanelly from
South Africa are united on the bill.
The festival’s pan-African orientation
is one of the things that makes Afro
Nation unique, explains Moonchild
Sanelly, who is not an Afrobeats artist by
definition – the 31-year-old singer with
the signature mop of blue curls fuses
electro-funk, rap and the South African
house genre gqom. Sanelly stresses the
importance of transglobal cooperation to
the worldwide success of African music.
“The spotlight is on West Africa right
now, which is a big chance for all of us,”
she says, referring to her collaboration
with Ghanaian artist Okuntakinte. What
pushed her career like nothing else,
though, was her feature on Beyoncé’s
Lion King soundtrack. “There’s no bigger
co-sign. My streaming numbers went
from thousands to millions within a few
weeks – and my pay cheques changed.”
The majority of non-African artists on
the bill come from the UK. London has
established itself as a home away from
home for Afrobeats. Second-generation
Africans such as Yxng Bane incorporate
the genre’s light mood and shuffling
beats into their rap tracks, creating
a sub-genre dubbed Afroswing.
London has
established itself as
a home away from
home for Afrobeats
The east London-born rapper – whose
track with fellow Brit Yungen, Bestie,
went top 10 in the UK in 2017 – looks
satisfied after his set (which, unusually,
saw a couple get engaged on stage). “I’ve
never consciously tried to incorporate
Afrobeats into my music,” he says. “It just
comes naturally. My parents are from
Congo and Angola, so I’m an African
boy.” Asked why Afrobeats is making
such huge waves abroad, the 23-year-old
points to artists from the diaspora.
“African music used to come from Africa,
but now a lot of it is made by secondgeneration
Africans born in Europe and
the US. When we’re doing Afrobeats, it’s
easier for people at home to consume.”
The Afrobeats craze started a bit
earlier in the UK than elsewhere –
Nigerian musician D’Banj’s dance
track Oliver Twist debuted at number
nine on the UK singles chart in 2012.
This was the tune that elevated African
pop music from the communities into a
broader urban space, explains radio and
TV presenter Adesope Olajide. Here at
Afro Nation, Olajide is better known
as ShopsyDoo, the Energy Gawd – a
nickname that is well-deserved. With his
equally agile colleague Eddie Kadi, the
entertainer introduces every act to the
stage, and he bridges the time between
live sets by dancing, joking, and getting
women from the audience on stage for
an impromptu twerking competition.
Back home in London, Olajide is
known for being one of Afrobeats’
earliest UK supporters. During a break,
the 43-year-old sits down to talk (or,
rather, hoarsely whisper – being on stage
for 10 hours a day has left its mark)
about the early days. Around 2008, he
and Afro Nation founder SMADE – real
name Adesegun Adeosun Jr – flew Wizkid
to London for the first time to perform at
a 300-capacity club in east London. After
the gig, the singer slept on SMADE’s sofa.
Today, Wizkid fills the O2 Arena.
When asked about the significance of
Afrobeats in the diaspora, Olajide refers
to a line by British-Nigerian grime star
Skepta in the 2015 remix of Wizkid’s song
Ojuelegba (“When I was in school, being
African was a diss. Sounds like you need
help saying my surname, miss”). “[In the
past] a lot of first- and second-generation
Africans didn’t want to identify themselves
as African,” he says. “Their surnames
were being slaughtered because people
couldn’t pronounce them. Even black
people with Caribbean heritage would
mock the African kids. But with the
advent of D’Banj and Wizkid, a lot of
‘King of Afrobeats’ Davido (centre) is joined by his elder sister Coco Adeleke and a (literal)
circle of friends for an impromptu prayer before his performance at Afro Nation Ghana
THE RED BULLETIN 35