Afrobeats
All Afrobeats Articles
How BTS and K-Pop Inspired a New Generation of African Pop Acts to Think Globally
Somewhere between BTS hitting Billboard #1 with "Dynamite" in August 2020 and Asake selling out The O2 Arena in 2023, a quiet blueprint passed hands. A boy group from Seoul … Read more»
The Afrobeats Songs With the Most Interesting Lyrics: Meaning, Storytelling and Wordplay Ranked
Chart positions lie. Streaming counts measure how often a song gets played, not how carefully it was written. Anyone who has decoded a Burna Boy Pidgin couplet at 2 a.m. … Read more»
The Best Acceptance Speeches by African Artists at International Award Shows
Acceptance speeches are the part of an awards night nobody can rehearse into perfection. The trophy is in hand, the camera is locked, the orchestra is forty-five seconds from playing … Read more»
The Most Influential Nigerian Music Producers Who Never Became Household Names
Every Afrobeats hit has two authors. The face in the music video, and the name sitting in parentheses on the metadata. Nigerian music has spent two decades building a global … Read more»
The Spiritual Side of Afrobeats: How Faith and Religion Show Up in Nigerian Music
Walk into any Lagos studio session at 2 a.m. and listen closely between takes. Before the producer hits record, before the artist drops the first bar, someone says it. "God … Read more»
Every Nigerian Artist Who Has Won a BRIT Award or Been Nominated: The Full List
Two roads lead Nigerian musicians to the BRIT Awards stage. The first runs through London estates, school playgrounds in Croydon and Tottenham, and bedrooms in Thornton Heath, where children of … Read more»
How Afrobeats DJs Make Their Money: Fees, Mixes, Events and Brand Deals
Walk into Quilox on a Friday at 1:47 a.m. and the man behind the CDJs is not just spinning Asake into Davido into a Burna Boy edit. He is running … Read more»
Why Afrobeats Love Songs Always Reference Food: A Cultural Explainer
Walk into any Lagos bar on a Saturday night and listen to what's playing. Within three songs, somebody on the speakers will be calling somebody else sweet, comparing a lover … Read more»
The Full History of the BET Awards Africa Category: Winners, Snubs and Highlights
When BET carved out a dedicated lane for African music at the 2011 ceremony, the move felt overdue but uncertain. African superstars had been crossing borders for years, yet the … Read more»