Nigerian Afrobeat singer, Davido has joined his colleagues, Burna Boy and Wizkid to distance himself from Afrobeat.
In an interview on the latest edition of the Business Untitled Podcast, Davido lamented the stereotyping of African artists in the Afrobeats genre regardless of their musical style.
He described his own genre of music as Afro-fusion rather than Afro-beats as he noted how Afrobeat is a sound that was originally pioneered by Fela Kuti, but now all African songs are termed Afrobeats.
To further portray his point, he further pointed out how if an artiste sings pure R&B sounding like SZA, Summerwalker, etc, they are put under Afrobeats and if an African rapper raps like Drake, they are still being put under Afrobeats.
“The first place that accepted African music outside Africa was the UK before America later joined. 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, or Summerwalker, they put them under Afrobeats. If an African rapper raps like Drake, they still put them under Afrobeats.
I don’t get offended when we’ve been categorized 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.”
His statement has caused a stir online with many claiming he was imitating Wizkid and Burna Boy.
