CNN —
Over the past decade, Afrobeats has become a global phenomenon, bringing African music into the Western mainstream. The MTV Video Music Awards now have an Afrobeats category, allowing performers like Burna Boy and Wizkid to pack out major venues in the US and Europe.
While many African artists have been able to ride the wave of the genre’s international popularity, some musicians are now looking beyond that and seeking global recognition.
“I don’t get mad if people call me an Afrobeats artist, but it’s just because it’s the standard for all Africans who make world-class music,” Ghanaian singer King Promise told CNN’s Larry Madowo.
In recent years, popular music originating from Africa has been widely categorized as Afrobeats in the global soundscape, even though it encompasses styles such as hip-hop, R&B, Amapiano, dancehall, and highlife.
With a sound that blends R&B, highlife, and hip-hop, King Promise began releasing music in 2017 and achieved international fame in 2023 with the viral dance track “Terminator” on TikTok. But the 29-year-old singer-songwriter doesn’t want to be confined to a single sound.
“Afrobeats acts like an umbrella that brings all of our music together,” he says. But he added that the label has a crossover feel, “to make it sound appealing not only to people back home, but also to the rest of the world.”
“I don’t think that’s the best idea,” he insists.
“I make music that I love,” he explained. “Today, if I want to make R&B, I’ll make it. If I want to make highlife, I can make it. If I want to make Afrobeat, I can make it. It’s really a matter of direction for me.”
King Promise: “Afrobeats has become a reference point for all Africans making global music”
The roots of the Afrobeats genre can be traced back to Nigerian music icon Fela Kuti. Fela Kuti is widely considered to be the inventor of Afrobeats, a genre with a similar name. Popularized in the 1970s, Afrobeat is a fusion of American jazz and funk with traditional Yoruba music. More recently, Afrobeats has morphed into Afrobeats, a looser label that encompasses all African music inspired by the original Afrobeats sound.
King Promise understands labels from a marketing perspective in the Western world, but he and other artists believe they rob them of their credibility.
At the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards, South African Afropop and Amapiano singer Tyra described winning the award for Best Afrobeat Song “Water” as “bittersweet” in her acceptance speech.
“The global impact ‘Water’ has had on the world proves that African music can also be pop music,” she said.
She further added, “There’s a tendency to lump all African artists into Afrobeats. Even though that’s the reality and Afrobeats has set things in motion and opened so many doors for us, African music is very diverse. It’s more than just Afrobeats.”
Nigerian superstars such as Davido, Thames, Wizkid and Burna Boy have publicly distanced themselves from the term Afrobeats in their music.
Wizkid went so far as to say on social media in March that calling his music Afrobeats was “like saying all American artists make rap.”
Earlier this year, Nigerian Afro-soul singer Simi told CNN: “In the West, there are many different genres. There are country musicians who sing country songs, and there are artists who sing hip-hop songs.
“Here, you’re in the same crowd (Afrobeat), so if you sing a street song, you’re in the same crowd as someone who sings Afro-soul.”
She added that the Afrobeats label does not differentiate between genres or sounds, so listeners expect everyone to sound the same.
“It’s like artists are suffocating,” Simi explained.
“You have to be a certain kind of artist for people to respect you and give you the praise you deserve.
“People like Adele don’t have these struggles.”
King Promise claims that although the Afrobeats sound has evolved over the years through the fusion of new sounds, the fundamental elements of the music remain traditional African music. He says it will continue to be a mainstay of popular music.
“Just as there is hip-hop that has stood the test of time, Afrobeats as a musical expression of who we are as Africans on a global scale has established itself with the loudest horn and it is only getting better and better,” he said.
