Nigerian music sensation, Davido, has made it clear that he does not want his music to be classified under the popular genre of Afrobeats.
Rather, he prefers to categorize his music as Afrofusion.
In a recent interview on the Business Untitled Podcast, Davido explained his stance on the issue.
He highlighted the importance of recognizing African music as a unique genre and the series of events that led to its mainstream acceptance globally.
“The first place that accepted African music outside Africa was the UK before America later joined. The UK termed African music Afrobeats. I don’t get offended when we’ve been categorized as Afrobeats. I mean, we need a genre,” he said.
Davido stressed that while he labels his music as Afrofusion, he is not insistent on having the genre explicitly stated on his songs. He acknowledged the significant journey that African music had to go through to achieve mainstream recognition.
This move by Davido to distance himself from the Afrobeats genre comes in the wake of other top Nigerian artists like Wizkid, Burna Boy, and Fireboy DML also disassociating themselves from the genre.
They have explicitly stated that Afrobeats is not representative of their unique music styles.
These artists have described the Afrobeats genre as “meaningless” when it comes to their music, signaling a shift in how African artists want their music to be perceived and classified.
