Afrobeats

Afrobeats, not to be confused with Afrobeat or Afroswing, is an umbrella term to describe popular music from West Africa and the diaspora that initially developed in Nigeria, Ghana, and the UK in the 2000s and 2010s. Afrobeats is less of a style per se, and more of a descriptor for the fusion of sounds flowing out of Nigeria and Ghana. Genres such as hiplife, jùjú music, highlife, azonto music, and naija beats, among others, were amalgamated under the "Afrobeats" umbrella.
Afrobeats is primarily produced in Lagos, Accra, and London. Historian and cultural critic Paul Gilroy reflects on the changing London music scene as a result of shifting demographics:

We are moving towards an African majority which is diverse both in its cultural habits and in its relationship to colonial and postcolonial governance, so the shift away from Caribbean dominance needs to be placed in that setting. Most of the grime folks are African kids, either the children of migrants or migrants themselves. It's not clear what Africa might mean to them.

In his earlier book, The Black Atlantic, Gilroy rejects the notion that Black culture and music can be bound to one geographical region. Afrobeats exemplifies this syncretism as a transnational genre that since 2019 has received international attention. David Drake writes about popular Nigerian music noting it is "Picking up on trends from the U.S., Jamaica, and Trinidad, they reimagine diasporic influences and—more often than not—completely reinvent them."
Afrobeats began to experience widespread global mainstream acclaim in the late 2010s, with artists achieving success across Africa, Europe, and North America. Between 2017 and 2022, Afrobeats experienced a 550% growth in streams on Spotify. In response, it has been referred to as one of Africa's 'biggest cultural' or 'musical' exports.

Characteristics

Afrobeats is commonly conflated with and referred to as Afrobeat ; however, these two are distinct, sound differently and are not the same.
Afrobeat is a genre that developed in the 1960s and 1970s, taking influences from Fuji music and highlife, mixed in with American jazz and funk. Characteristics of Afrobeat include big bands, long instrumental solos, and complex jazzy rhythms. The name was coined by Nigerian afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. Fela Kuti and his longtime partner, drummer Tony Allen, are often credited for laying the groundwork for what would become afrobeats.
This is in contrast to the Afrobeats sound, pioneered in the 2000s and 2010s. While afrobeats takes on influences from afrobeat, it is a diverse fusion of various different genres such as British house music, hiplife, hip hop, dancehall, soca, jùjú music, highlife, R&B, ndombolo, Naija beats, Azonto, and palm-wine music. Unlike Afrobeat, which is a clearly defined genre, afrobeats is more of an overarching term for contemporary West African pop music. The term was created in order to package these various sounds into a more easily accessible label, which were unfamiliar to the UK listeners where the term was first coined. Another, more subtle contrast between the two sounds, is that while Fela Kuti used his music to discuss and criticise contemporary politics, afrobeats typically avoids such topics, thereby making it less politically charged than afrobeat.
Afrobeats is most identifiable by its signature driving drum beat rhythms, whether electronic or instrumental. These beats harken to the stylings of a variety of traditional African drum beats across West Africa as well as the precursory genre Afrobeat. The beat in Afrobeats music is not just a base for the melody, but acts as a major character of the song, taking a lead role that is sometimes equal to or of greater importance than the lyrics and almost always more central than the other instrumentals. Afrobeats shares a similar momentum and tempo to house music. Usually using the 4/4 time signature common in Western music, afrobeats commonly features a 3–2 or 2–3 rhythm called a clave.
Another distinction within Afrobeats is the notably West African, specifically Nigerian or Ghanaian, accented English that is often blended with local slangs, pidgin English, as well as local Nigerian or Ghanaian languages depending on the backgrounds of the performers.
Sampling is sometimes used within Afrobeats music. Burna Boy and Wizkid, for example, have both sampled Fela Kuti.

Name

-based DJ Abrantee was credited by The Guardian for coining the name "Afrobeats", adding an "s" to Afrobeat, in order to package and present the sound to British dancefloors. DJ Abrantee stated:

I cannot say I invented Afrobeats. Afrobeats was invented before I was born. It was invented by Fela Kuti. But what you've got to remember is the genre of music artists themselves are now producing — the likes of Wizkid, Ice Prince, P-Square, Castro, May7ven are calling their music Afrobeats. So that's what I call it when I put them on my mix tapes.

Afrobeats is less of a style like Afrobeat is, and more of an overarching term for the contemporary sound of African pop music and that of those influenced by it. DJ 3K criticised the label for being a contemporary marketing category. According to David Drake, the eclectic genre "reimagines diasporic influences and—more often than not—completely reinvents them". However, some caution against equating Afrobeats to contemporary pan-African music, in order to prevent the erasure of local musical contributions. Some artists have distanced themselves from the term 'afrobeats' due to the overt similarity it has with 'afrobeat', even though they are different sounds.
Afrobeats is also sometimes referred to as Afro-pop and Afro-fusion. A few artists have used the same alternative names to describe their music; Don Jazzy has stated he prefers "Afro-pop" rather than Afrobeats. Wizkid, Burna Boy, and Davido all use Afro-fusion or Afro-pop to describe their music. Mr Eazi also refers to his music as 'banku music' to denote the influence Ghana has had on his music. Rema coined the term "Afrorave", which is a subgenre of Afrobeats with influences of Arabian and Indian music.
Yeni Kuti, daughter of Fela Kuti, expressed distaste for the name 'Afrobeats' and instead preferred if people referred to it as "Nigerian pop", "Naija Afropop", or "Nigerian Afropop". Similarly, Seun Kuti, the youngest son of Fela Kuti, has maintained that the music made by Dbanj and P-Square should be classified as Afropop. In defence, he said, "You cannot just call some pop music Afrobeat just because it's coming from Africa...". Music critic Osagie Alonge criticised the pluralisation of 'afrobeat'. Sam Onyemelukwe of Trace Nigeria, a television show, however noted that he liked 'afrobeats', noting that it acknowledges the foundation set by afrobeat while also recognising that it's a different and unique sound. Nigerian artist Burna Boy has stated that he does not want his music referred to as afrobeats. However, most of these monikers, including afrobeats, have been criticised for using the 'afro' prefix, presenting Africa as a monolithic entity, rather than one with diverse cultures and sounds.
Reggie Rockstone, a pioneering hiplife artist, felt conflicted over artists in an interview with Gabriel Myers Hansen:

It's like 'Oh come on! We work so hard for you to get on, and now you're gonna deny what it is that we did? Come on!' Sometimes I get that vibe, but then, in the same breath, I'm like, well, it is one Africa, and I'm pan-African to the bone. So do I really care if it's called Afrobeats or hiplife? As long as Black people are getting it, and young people are making money, feeding their kids, I think I'm okay. So, to each their own.

Rockstone used "afrobeats" rather than "hiplife"—a genre often placed under the "Afrobeats" umbrella.

History

Beginnings

Styles of music that make up afrobeats largely began sometime in the late '90s and early to mid-2000s. With the launching of MTV Base Africa in 2005, West Africa was given a large platform through which artists could grow. Artists such as MI Abaga, Naeto C and Sarkodie were among the first to take advantage of this, however most of the artists were merely making interpretations of American hip hop and R&B. Prior to this, groups such as Trybesmen, Plantashun Boiz, and the Remedies were early pioneers that fused modern American influences from hip-hop and R&B with local melodies. While this allowed them to build local audiences, it blocked them from a wider platform due to the language barriers in-place. P-Square released their album Game Over in 2007, which was unique for its usage of Nigerian rhythms and melodies. Meanwhile, artists such as Flavour N'abania embraced older genres, such as highlife, and remixing it into something more modern, as seen in his song "Nwa Baby ". By the late 2000s, artists within the burgeoning scene were beginning to become stars across the continent.
However it was not until the launch of Choice FM's new Afrobeats radio show birthed and presented by DJ Abrantee in April 2011 that the genre gained traction and saw 'Afrobeats' trending for the first time in history. The launch of the show gained popularity and provided a launch pad for both UK based and African artists to submit songs for playlist consideration. Abrantee used his daytime show to test daytime play of Afrobeats. Some of the first Afrobeats songs to be playlisted on daytime radio across the UK were Mista Silva's "Boom Boom Tah", May7ven's "Ten Ten", D'Banj's "Oliver Twist", and Moelogo's "Pangolo" in March 2012. P-Square released "Chop My Money " alongside popular Senegalese-American artist Akon in 2012. "Oliver Twist", released online by Nigerian artist D'banj in the summer of 2011 charted at number 9 on the UK Singles Chart in 2012 and number 2 on the UK R&B Chart. In 2012, P-Square remixed their 2009 hit single "E No Easy" with Matt Houston, and it became the first afrobeats song to reach top 5 on the French SNEP music chart, as well as top 10 on the Belgian Ultratop chart, spending 29 weeks and 16 weeks respectively. The song was the first afrobeats summer hit in France, which in turn boosted afrobeats' visibility in the francophone countries. Mr Eazi later credited D'banj in an interview with Sway in the Morning in 2019 for helping encourage Nigerians to embrace their accents and music, rather than looking outwards and trying to emulate American accents and music.
British DJs such as DJ Edu, with his show Destination Africa on BBC Radio 1Xtra, and DJ Abrantee, with his show on Choice FM, granted African music a platform in the United Kingdom. DJ Abrantee has been credited for coining the name "afrobeats". DJ Abrantee launched his Afrobeats charts on Capital Xtra in 2014. DJs and producers like DJ Black, Elom Adablah, and C-Real, were also crucial in spreading afrobeats, often giving songs a burst of popularity after being played on their shows.