The History of Afrobeats
Ask a music fan where Afrobeats emerged from, and chances are they will mention Fela Kuti, whose foray into music began in the 1950s. While this is partly accurate, the origins of Afrobeat date back 100 years to the social elites of the Gold Coast (now Ghana), West Africa. We trace the History of Afrobeats, from Highlife and Fela Kuti to Burna Boy, taking a look at how the genre evolved over decades to become the pulse of a generation and a showcase for Africa on the global stage.
The Origins of Highlife
A discussion on Afrobeats is incomplete without an examination of highlife music, a style which first gained prominence in the late 19th century within the Ghanaian high society. Highlife arose when Ghanaian musicians began to weave traditional Akan music with sounds like jazz and calypso. Championed by bands and artists including the Jazz Kings, Cape Coast Sugar Babies, the Accra Orchestra, E.T. Mensah and E.K. Nyame, this new sound grew rapidly across Ghana, from the 1920s to the 1960s.
Highlife soon found its way into Nigeria through cross-border cultural exchange, and music maestros like Bobby Benson, Rex Lawson, Victor Olaiya, Eddie Okonta, and Victor Uwaifo embraced and further refined it, ensuring its widespread acceptance around the country.
Fela Kuti & the Birth of Afrobeats
As highlife immersed into Ghanaian and Nigerian culture, other music types began to emerge, like juju, fuji, burger highlife, dance highlife, etc. The most prominent spin-off remains Afrobeat, created by the late Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, aka Olufela Anikulapo Kuti, aka Fela.
Born in 1938 to an upper-middle-class family, Fela took to music from a young age, playing in different music bands before venturing to the Trinity College of Music in London between 1958 and 1962 to study music. While there, he formed the Koola Lobitos group with whom he played a mix of highlife and jazz until his return to Nigeria in 1963. He continued to play this eclectic mix of highlife and jazz until he visited the United States in 1969.
While there is contrasting information about whether Afrobeat was born before or after this trip, it is undeniable that the tour transformed Fela’s music afterwards. During the journey, Fela discovered the Black Panther Party and the American civil rights movement, including writings of Martin Luther King Jr., Angela Davis, Jesse Jackson, and Malcolm X, which greatly affected his worldview and music style. Afrobeat, subsequently, became a combination of Apala, blues, funk, jazz, highlife, salsa, calypso, and traditional Yoruba music.
Fela Kuti
Another outcome of the US trip was Fela’s increased vocal decrying of the social and political ills plaguing Nigeria and Africa at large, which were wielded into the electric call-and-response verses of his songs. This attracted the ire of Nigeria’s then-military leadership, which often punished him with beatings, raids and jail time. Amazingly, this contributed to his notoriety, earning him a huge mass appeal across continents during his lifetime and afterwards.
Fela died in 1997 with over 200 songs to his credit. Some of his remarkable hits include ‘Zombie’, ‘International Thief Thief’, ‘Beast of No Nation’ and ‘Original Sufferhead’. He was also commemorated in the Broadway musical, Fela!, which debuted in 2008.
The Evolution of Afrobeats
Moving away from Fela’s politically-charged Afrobeat, the early 2000s saw the emergence of a new crop of artists across West Africa like the Plantashun Boiz, Trybesmen, and Remedies, who focused on adapting genres like hip hop and R&B. Abrantee Boateng, a radio and television presenter, club DJ and events promoter, known professionally as DJ Abrantee, was credited as the first person to use the term on his radio show in 2011. Afrobeats is the collective term for music originating from West Africa and the diaspora, notably Nigeria, Jamaica, Ghana, the UK, and the US, from the 2000s to the present.
DJ Abrantee
Afrobeats Goes Global
A little over ten years into the millennium, things began to change on the Afrobeats scene. Spearheading this turnaround were artists like Nigeria’s D’banj, whose single, ‘Oliver Twist’, was released on Kanye West’s G.O.O.D Music record label in May 2012. The song would later debut at number nine on the UK Singles Chart and number two on the UK R&B Chart in the same month, making it the first Nigerian song to debut on both charts. This marked a turning point in the reception for Afrobeats, an accomplishment which has been replicated many times over.
Nigeria’s Wizkid (Ayodeji Balogun), Davido (David Adeleke), Burna Boy (Damini Ogulu) (known as the Big 3 of Afrobeats), as well as D’banj (Dapo Oyebanjo) Tiwa Savage, Yemi Alade, Tekno, Ghana’s Sarkodie, Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy have played a huge role in making Afrobeats a sound to reckon with universally. They have also experimented with other sounds, interlacing Afrobeat, pop, funk, juju, reggae and dancehall, azonto, hip hop, hip life, and R & B, eventually birthing Afrobeats, as it is now known.
Their achievements have included collaborating with Western counterparts, playing at festivals, winning global awards, and selling out international tours. Beyoncé’s ‘The Lion King: The Gift’ album was spectacular in that it featured nine Afrobeats musicians, including Yemi Alade, Wizkid, and Shatta Wale.
Globally, Wizkid’s ’Essence’ and Burna Boy’s ‘Ye’ are two of the biggest hit songs released in the last decade, both amassing over a billion streams worldwide. Furthermore, in 2018, Wizkid became the first Afrobeats star to sell out the 20,000-seater O2 Arena in London for a multinational tour, with Davido and Burna Boy following suit in 2019 and 2021, respectively. Similarly, Burna Boy, in 2022 and 2023, became the first Nigerian artist to sell out New York’s Madison Square Garden and New York's Citi Field Stadium, both with over 20,000 and 40,000 seating capacities, respectively.
Wiz Kid
New Wave of Artists
Quickly gaining recognition on the Afrobeats arena are contemporary musicians, including Tems, Ayra Starr, BNXN, Omah Lay, Rema, Mr Eazi, Asake, Aya Nakamura, AMAARAE, and Fireboy DML. These are young singers who grew up heavily influenced by pop culture within and outside their countries.
Tems
