Over the years, Afrobeats, Nigeria’s beloved genre has conquered the world. A music genre that is now an integral part of the contemporary rap landscape. We are talking about pop melodies on instrumentals inspired by traditional African music with lyrics often combining both English and Yoruba, a language spoken in Nigeria. It encompasses notes of jazz, highlife, funk, melodic voices and percussion.
To gain international attention, Afrobeats had to fuse with many different music styles as a means to introduce itself to the industry. This worked very well and can be observed through these artists’ style, although they all share the same basis of Afrobeats they each have their unique twist to it. The popularity Afrobeats has attained in the last twenty years can be thanked by the decade of communal efforts by the West African diaspora to claim and be proud of their cultural force.
5. Rema
Rema is a young Nigerian artist who pushed Afrobeats limits to other dimensions with his famous song Calm Down which he released this summer, from his album entitled Rave and Roses. The music video published on YouTube got over 355 million views and stayed for more than 21 weeks as number one on the Billboard Afrobeats Chart.
Rema calls his music style Afrorave, which is a subgenre of Afrobeats that encompasses hints of Arabian and Indian music. Rema has also successfully gained a lot of hype and fame from performing at his concerts around the world due to the contagious energy he projects. Check out Rema’s 2023 tour dates.
4. Burna Boy
Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, also known as Burna Boy, is a Nigerian singer, rapper and songwriter who is best known for being one of Africa’s most successful musical artists of the past decade. He goes by the name of African Giant, which is also the name of his most famous album he released in the summer of 2019. The Ogulu family has been involved in the music industry for many years, with Burna’s grandfather managing Nigerian songwriter Fela Kuti, the pioneer of Afrobeats. In addition, Burna’s mother is now his manager.
Burna’s fame has risen from the success of his political lyrics denouncing the corrupt government system that exists in Nigeria. His biggest song is On the Low despite his big summer 2022 hit, Last Last.
3. Ayra Starr
Ever since the release of her critically acclaimed debut album, 19 & Dangerous, Ayra Starr’s career has seriously taken off. Starr’s style is a mix of R&B and Afrobeats, which is a direct reflection of the new hybrid African music scene that is becoming more and more famous.
With her heartfelt, but raw tone of voice, Ayra Starr has been able to perform with incredible artists such as Burna Boy in the O2 Arena. She also has collaborated on different albums with CKay as well as Stormzy and Wizkid. These were and continue to be big steps in her career knowing how young of an artist she is. When releasing Rush in 2021, Starr became the Youngest African Female Artist to attain more than 100 million views on her music video.
2. Asake
Asake is a Nigerian artist whose style is a mix of Afropop, Amampiano and Afro R&B which are all genres that fuse together to create anthem-like melodies. Asake’s hits that blew up from his new album, Mr. Money With The Vibe were Terminator, as well as Peace Be Unto You and his very well known remix featuring Burna Boy, Sungba. Asake is popular for the creative, outside the box outlook he holds on his music videos. His music is rooted in Yoruba culture and is heavily packed with philosophical learnings and meanings that are attached to religion.
As a producer, Asake is extremely in tune with his music. He started his professional career in 2010 by creating beats from scratch for dancers as he was a dancer before he became this famous artist. Asake says in an interview with MTV Base Africa: “I love to sing for dancers.”
In less than five years of pursuing his career, Wizkid received the MTV Africa Music Awards for “artist of the year” and “best musician” of the year 2016, when he released the song One Dance with Drake. It was used as an introduction for Afrobeats worldwide as Drake was already a big figure in the music industry. Wizkid mentions in an interview with Vogue: “I know there’s a saying that if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere, but fuck that. If you can make it in Lagos, now, OK, you can make it anywhere, I’m living proof of that.”