According to Wikipedia, Afrobeats, created largely by Fela Anikulapo Kuti, is “a complex fusion of jazz, funk, Ghanaian/Nigerian highlife, psychedelic rock and traditional West African chants and rhythms.” Fela also credited a large part of the development of Afrobeat to Tony Allen, of who he said, “Without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat.”
African music in all its forms is enchanting; from the massive energy, the sound, and the way it flows through the body, it really is a thing of magic. It’s no wonder that in an expected turn of events, it has attracted a host of top international artists to Nigeria, and Africa at large, with Kanye West, recently visiting Africa to sample some African music for his upcoming album.
Its gotten so huge that top American music duo, Major Lazer made an album full of features from African artistes. Burna boy, Kiss Daniel, and Mr Eazi, are among the Nigerians who made the list along with Babes Wodumo of South Africa, among some other musicians.
But, wait a minute, aren’t you curious about how this all started in the first place? Who started the revolution and brought the awareness to Africa. No, it wasn’t Wizkid.
The growth of African music
The mere mention of an artiste’s name alongside some International ones is enough to make many Nigerians salivate. We rush to our phones, set to open up our ears and to check if this is it, the one that will throw our artistes into the international limelight. For some singers, it has done the trick and for others, it was a hit and miss.
Some people would have you believe that internationally, we were nowhere until the emergence of the Tiwa Savages and the Wizkids. How would you react if I told you that as far back as the 1980s, we were rocking the international music scene? Some of our musicians then even scored some pretty big nominations. Yes, even the Grammys.
Singers like King Sunny Ade and Fela Kuti were as big as they were thought to be, even bigger. At the height of Fela’s career, he was known as one of Africa’s most charismatic and challenging music performers. Every millennial today knows something about Fela, has heard at least one of his songs. We know about Lady, Water, Shuffering and Shmiling, Zombie, and so many of his songs, many of which existed to challenge the government and the status quo at that time.
It shouldn’t be a surprise - but it is to some - that Fela had quite a score of international collaborations. Heavyweights of that time, musicians like Tony Allen, who was rumoured to be like a spider due to the fact that he could play music with his elbows, feet and his hands, and who was a part of Fela’s band until he left due to personal issues. Fela also scored collaborations with such artists like Macy Gray and Roy Ayers.
Another artist who pioneered international collaborations in the early days is the great King Sunny Ade himself. If I told you that KSA has a song with Stevie wonder titled Ase, would your jaw drop? In addition to that, he is also the first Nigerian artist to receive nominations for a Grammy award not once, but twice. KSA even dabbled into Hollywood at the height of his career but that’s not what we’re discussing today.
There isn’t only Afrobeats. There are several genres of African music: Afro-soul, Funk, Apala, Fuji, Blues, Gospel, among many others. Nigerian singers like Johnny Drille, Ric Hassani, Nikki Laoye, Efe Oraka, have come out of the shadows to show us that there is more than one enjoyable genre to vibe to. They seem to be succeeding too as their songs are enjoying impressive airplay.
How we stepped out of our shores
For the top musicians of this age, the way is not exactly clear yet. For most some of them, it’s payment before any kind of music recording. But even though the case may be like that for some - Olamide has insisted that he would never pay an international artist for a collaboration - it’s not the case for some others. Burna Boy, Wizkid, Tiwa Savage, Tekno, have enjoyed an equal partnership with some of the biggest names in the international music space.
Some examples are Tekno and Ciara’s Freak Me, which sampled one of Tiwa Savage’s songs and caused a huge controversy. Drake’s One Dance in which he featured Wizkid, and Burna Boy, who revealed that he has worked with Drake on some songs for his most recent album. Whatever it is, it seems the influence of Afrobeats is spreading far and wide.
Although the trend of international collaborations didn’t start with the new age artists, they can be credited with making it as wildly popular as it is now.
The question then is how exactly did it start? Who pioneered this new age of international collaborations?
Some industry watchers have credited D’Banj as starting the new wave of international music collaboration with his enlistment of Snoop Dogg for the remix to his hit song Endowed back in 2012. Such as the case may be, the musician who truly took ‘Africa to the world’ so to speak is Wizkid. He did a remix of his wildly popular song Ojuelegba with Drake and Skepta and that helped to launch him into the international space. He has since gone on to score features on both artists’ songs, even winning several awards for ‘One Dance’, his song with Drake.
Top international collaborations of all time
While there have been several Nigerian-International collaborations, it would be remiss of me to not include a list so as to provide a rough image of what the industry has looked and currently looks like. Have a look at my compilation of the most impactful collaborations that have ever been recorded.
1. Skepta feat. Wizkid - Bad Energy (Stay Far Away)
The world imploded (and is still imploding) when Skepta and Wizkid came together for this song. Skepta (real name Joseph Junior Adenuga) is a Nigerian-British grime artist. He and Wizkid became friends following which he facilitated Wizkid’s entry into the space of international music. Skepta has famously worn his love for Nigeria on his sleeve.
2. Drake feat. Wizkid & Kyla - One Dance
It may interest you to know that Skepta was instrumental in introducing Wizkid and Drake. From there, their relationship only grew to a professional one as they have worked on lots of songs together, with Wizkid also scooping some awards as a result of his efforts.
The video for One Dance is currently not available due to copyright reasons (There are too many bad fakes online).
3. P Square feat. Dave Scott - Bring it On
The original version of this song is good but Dave Scott made this song even better. This makes this song one of the very few that was improved upon by the Nigerian-International sprinkle of ‘goodness’.
4. Wizkid feat. Drake & Skepta - Ojuelegba
Most people remember the original song as being spectacular. It is still being played on major channels today. I don’t know that many people have heard the equally amazing remix with Drake and Skepta. The story goes that Skepta, who was friends with Wizkid at the time, played the original for Drake who loved it and immediately wanted to be a part of the song.
