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My kind of music is Afrofusion – Davido denounces Afrobeats
Nigerian superstar Davido has joined the ranks of artists distancing themselves from the Afrobeats genre, following in the footsteps of Wizkid, Burna Boy, and Fireboy DML.
During his appearance on the latest edition of the Business Untitled Podcast, the DMW boss expressed frustration with the tendency to categorize all African artists under the umbrella of Afrobeats, irrespective of their individual musical styles.
He said, “The first place that accepted African music outside Africa is the UK before America later join. The UK termed African music Afrobeats.
“Afrobeat is a sound that was originally pioneered by Fela Kuti. But now all African songs are termed Afrobeats. If an African artiste sings pure R&B, sounding like SZA, Summerwalker, they put them under Afrobeats. If an African rapper rapping like Drake, they still put them under Afrobeats.
“I don’t get offend when we’ve been categorised as Afrobeats. I mean, we need a genre. It could be R&B or Afropop. I call my music Afrofusion but I’m not big on ‘O put Afrofusion on my song.’ I know how long it took for African music to become mainstream.”
“If an African artiste sings pure R&B, sounding like SZA, Summerwalker, they put them under Afrobeats. If an African rapper rapping like Drake, they still put them under Afrobeats. My sound is Afro Fusion.”
– Davido pic.twitter.com/0DZZGsmdWm
— BASITO (@itzbasito) April 24, 2024
Recall, Davido’s manager, Asa Asika, has weighed in on the dynamics of collaborations within the Nigerian music industry, asserting that the common practice of featuring numerous big artists on a single song is not typical of Afrobeats.
In a recent interview with Ventes Rap, a French news website, Asika highlighted the distinction between collaboration norms in the Nigerian music scene and those in the Latin music world.
He emphasized that the approach to collaborations in the Latin music industry differs significantly from what is considered the “Afrobeats style.”