Nigerian Music Has Spiralled Out of Control—Yemi Alade

By Dipo Olowookere

The music scene in Nigeria is unarguably one of the biggest in Africa. In fact, it is like what the American music industry is to the world and the key stakeholders are loving the attention.

A popular female artiste, Yemi Alade, attested to this when she told CNN International in the latest episode of Africa Avant-Garde that, “The music industry in Nigeria is ever-growing, it is huge. The music has spiralled out of control. It’s international, the entire world is into it, the spotlight is on Africa and we’re loving it.”

Unfortunately, the outside world sees the sounds from Nigeria as purely Afrobeats, which some people like Yemi Alade, who gained limelight after she won the maiden edition of a now-rested Peak Talent Hunt in 2009, said was worrying.

“I like to call my genre of music Afropolitan. For me it’s a mix of highlife, Afrobeats, R’n’B and pop,” she stated.

“I’m not an Afrobeats artist, my own genre of music is Afro House. Afro House is a fusion of African music, there’s the African influence in terms of the beat, and my vocals – I love to sing in Yoruba language,” another female singer and songwriter, Niniola, said.

Afrobeats is the sounds produced from West African and was made very popular by late music legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and music executives, Kenny Keke Ogungbe and Dayo D1 Adeneye, who started Kennis Music, one of Nigeria’s best-known music labels, in the late 1990s, cautioned that not everything should be grouped under the Afrobeats label,

“I hope as we keep moving, the world will learn to recognise that everything that comes out of Nigeria is not Afrobeats,” the submitted.

As for Mr Obi Asika, the founder of Yam Carnival, a festival in London, England celebrating Black music, culture, and food, he is hopeful that African music will continue to grow in popularity internationally.

However, he cautioned that the genre shouldn’t lose its African roots, “I hope that it keeps its foundations strong, and I hope that African people remain stakeholders in it – that it’s not just gobbled up by the industry, because then it will last forever.”

A renowned music producer and founder of Mavin Global, Don Jazzy, said streaming is increasing the popularity of African music globally.