In 2016, Afrobeats – the catchall term for a range of contemporary dance music emerging from west Africa – began to seep into global pop culture, propelled by intercontinental collaborations such as Wizkid and Drake’s Come Closer. Olabode Otolorin, then a university student, would dispatch optimistic forecasts on the internet about the genre’s future. Nearly a decade on and now a campaign associate at Mavin Records, one of Africa’s leading labels, Otolorin has a more downbeat outlook on Afrobeats. “It is currently in a perilous state in terms of our exports,” he says.
Otolorin is not alone in this sentiment. Addressing the 200 or so fans gathered at a spruced-up warehouse in Lagos for a recent listening party for his new album, Clarity of Mind, Afrobeats stalwart Omah Lay made a startling but accurate observation. “Afrobeats is declining overseas – that’s a fact. The sound from 2020 to 2024 isn’t what it is today. I’ve been watching, learning and studying my idols, looking for a way to bring that energy back,” he said pensively.
