Afrobeat singer Seun Kuti has stirred fresh conversation around Nigerian music after his bold remarks during an interview on Beat 99.9FM.
According to the son of late music legend Fela Kuti, Afrobeat should not be seen as a strict genre but more as a label that identifies sounds coming out of Africa.
“Clearly still not doing justice to the music. I think Afrobeat is more of a title than it’s a genre. More of a title than it’s a genre,” Seun said.
He argued that the versatility of Nigerian artists shows why the tag is more of an umbrella name than a rigid sound.
“You can see amapiano. Yes, you can see the new Afrobeat. It’s the new title of that. So Afrobeat is just a generalization, just a title to identify something from a particular place. I don’t think it’s a genre. It’s not a genre,” he insisted.
Seun further explained that even the biggest names in the industry do not operate as though Afrobeat is a fixed genre.
“Even the gatekeepers, the big names don’t deal with it like a genre. Their artists are eclectic in the way that they could do a dancehall track today, do a blues track tomorrow, do a Nigerian pop song and jump on amapiano,” he said.
He concluded that the flexibility of African musicians proves Afrobeat is better understood as a unifying label rather than a musical category.