How Afrobeats has become an unstoppable musical force: ‘It’s crazy to think that we have so many stars and musicians’
Like a bad science experiment that went viral overnight, an Afrobeats song — a remix for a cover of a Michael Jackson song — is now an internet phenomenon. For most of the past 50 years, Afrobeats has been one of the most potent musical forces in the world — a source of inspiration for countless young people and a driving force behind a generation that has been growing up in rap music and dance music for longer than the Rastafarians were able to ride the coattails of hip hop.
For most of that time, the record label has been dominated by the production of the legendary Afrobeat brothers, Fela Kuti, who, in the early 1970s, inspired many artists around the world to make music that would eventually be known as dancehall.
Now, following the rise of DJ Mase, the label has been led by artists whose music has become a crucial part of the global dance music scene: Jay Z, Lil Wayne, and Nicki Minaj, who are all household names thanks to their chart-topping albums. It’s an incredible feat of collective creativity, which is all the more astonishing considering the Afrobeat phenomenon has had a more or less uninterrupted history.
For more than 60 years, Afrobeat was a way to combine African music with American pop culture, a genre created specifically to attract the masses and provide an outlet for Africans to enjoy the music they grew up listening to.
There are all kinds of Afrobeat stars now. The production duo is known as the duo Jay & Mack, though that’s just one facet of their creative partnership. The production duo is known as the duo Jay & Mack, though that’s just one facet of their creative partnership. They’ve also signed a variety of artists, such as The Roots, J-Zone, and the rap group Migos. Both the record label itself and the Afrobeat phenomenon has remained powerful.
It was the music of Afrobeat that inspired an emerging dance scene in the United States.
The first Afrobeat song
The Afrobeat phenomenon was a way for African Americans to listen to African music