The rise of Afrobeats

According to Abrantee, the funky party sounds now emanating from Ghana and Nigeria are providing an injection of new energy into UK urban and US hip-hop. “The floodgates have opened. Music is always evolving, and everyone’s always looking for the next drug. Funky house has died out, grime is still there but it’s gone back […]

According to Abrantee, the funky party sounds now emanating from Ghana and Nigeria are providing an injection of new energy into UK urban and US hip-hop. “The floodgates have opened. Music is always evolving, and everyone’s always looking for the next drug. Funky house has died out, grime is still there but it’s gone back underground, electro-pop’s got UK urban music in the charts, but that’ll die out too, it’s got a short shelf-life. So everyone’s looking for the next thing, the next hype – and people are finally noticing I’m getting 3,000 people coming out to dance to Afrobeats.”

For British-Ghanaian hip-hop stalwart Sway, who has been rapping over Ghanaian beats and collaborating with Accra’s finest for almost a decade, there are obvious similarities between the 1960s Afrobeat that swept the world and what’s happening now. “Fela Kuti is obviously a massive legend in the game, and what he was doing is not too different to what D’Banj is doing now – taking western influences and adding them to African culture, and coming up with something new, that appeals to everyone.”

Even with that history, Sway reckons that technology has heralded a highly accelerated three-way cultural exchange between Africa, America and Britain. “African music in Africa is evolving in relation to what’s going on abroad too. Via the internet they’re picking up certain trends much quicker: so for example you have Auto-Tune and western styles of singing cropping up on all these Afrobeats tracks.”

You can hear this influence on Nigerian rap star Ice Prince’s hits Oleku and Superstar, and, he says, Afrobeats itself marks a new musical progression: “There’s been a serious change in the music coming out of Africa lately,” he explains. “The sound is heavier and clearer, the videos are better, there’s been a positive growth in the African music scene. It was just a matter of time before people paid attention.”

And now, Sway’s peers in the UK and the US are waking up to Afrobeats’ secret: it’s accessible on so many different levels, but at its core it’s just irresistible pop music. For Sway, its power is blindingly obvious: “When you’ve got African swag and African traditions combined with up-to-date western styles, and singing in English, well – you’ve got a winning formula on your hands.”

(guardian.co.uk)