Yes I said pop artiste. No mistake there. Wizkid is a pop artiste, just like Davido, D’Banj or others of that musical persuasion. Not Afrobeats.
Simply because such a genre doesn’t exist. There is afrobeat, popularised by Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Tony Allen which at its heart is a combination of traditional Nigerian jazz, highlife, funk and chanted call and response vocals fused with percussion. But there is no afrobeats.
Pop music on the other hand does exist. Pop[ular] music has been the leading music genre all over world for decades now. In Nigeria it is no exception.
The ubiquity of the wrongful classification was recently brought closer to home when Ayeni Adekunle, founder/CEO of BHM Group and a media entrepreneur started on a twitter rant about it.
Dear Oyinbo media. WIZKID, Davido, Dbanj, and co are not Afrobeats artistes. They are pop artistes. Stop the misnomer.
— Ayẹni Adékúnlé S. (@ayenithegreat) May 12, 2016
That tweet and the succeeding ones kicked off a mini twitter storm that saw many agree with him.
Osagie Alonge, Chief Editor of Pulse Nigeria, was one of those, stating that the likes of Wizkid, Davido and Korede Bello should be seen as pop artistes.
https://twitter.com/OsaGz/status/730683301736923136
The ex-manager of pop artiste Wande Coal, who goes by the single name of Bankulli, feels that maybe African media is to blame, because according to him, very few actually analyse music on the continent and would rather just copy and paste.
everybody write and post what they see . few of you guys do indent analysis of our game . cc @ayenithegreat
— Bankulli ( Grammy Nominated ) (@bankulli) May 12, 2016
Same with @AfroVII
AfrobeatS…. The name annoys me but we snoozed and someone else named it for us. https://t.co/YBkHUpNnAE
— T. Rankïn' ∆ ???? (@AfroVII) May 12, 2016
Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, a TV host, was equally disgusted by the very idea of ‘afrobeats’
I've been fighting this battle. But I think it's too late now. Even Nigerians have fed into it. Another identity foisted.
— Ebuka Obi-Uchendu (@Ebuka) May 12, 2016
Geography shouldn’t matter anymore when it comes to classifying music just as it shouldn’t anymore when it comes to enjoying it. Just because Wizkid is Nigerian and sings of Nigeria doesn’t mean he doesn’t sing pop music.
UB 40 are a prominent reggae band formed in Birmingham, United Kingdom in the 70s and one of the world’s best selling musical groups. An entire genre wasn’t created to accommodate them just because they are thousands of kilometres from Kingston, Jamaica.
Why should our own be any different?
Africa needs to reject afrobeats and everyone propagating the nonsense. We need to pay attention to the discussion on pop, afrobeats and Nigerian music stars.
The western media might be forgiven for not knowing better. But the African media can’t be forgiven that easily. After all the erroneous ‘afrobeats’ was allegedly coined by a London DJ of Nigerian extraction a few years.
This inaccurate classification harks at a failure to really understand our music and what it is about.
We are the largest African nation on the planet with shedloads of amazing musical talent. We should be exporting our music to the rest of world as good enough to stand on its own and compete against other artistes in the world.
We should resist the temptation to put ourselves in a box that is not ours just for the sake of acceptance. It has been proven time and time again that our music is good enough.
A similar mistake was made decades ago when we allowed the West pigeonhole our music greats like King Sunny Ade, Oliver de Coque and Ebenezer Obey in the ‘World Music’ category. And so instead of competing against the best in the world, all the African acts are pitted against each other during awards shows.
One would not say Drake does Canadian rap, why then can’t Wizkid be a pop artiste?
Pop music by its nature is very eclectic and varied, often borrowing elements from other styles of music like rock, R&B and dance. But even then there are the core elements that define it; the songs are short to medium length with repeated choruses, melodic tunes and hooks.
Now doesn’t that remind you of Wizkid?