You know that feeling when a song grabs you before the first lyric? That bounce. That rhythm. That groove that moves your body before your brain catches up?
That’s Afrobeats. The sound that powers Drake’s “One Dance” and much of today’s most danceable music.
But Afrobeats didn’t start with Drake. And it didn’t start on the charts. It started in West Africa.
Afrobeats (not to be confused with Afrobeat, the 1970s genre pioneered by Fela Kuti) is a genre that emerged in the early 2000s in Nigeria and Ghana. It fuses traditional African percussion with global influences: highlife, hip-hop, dancehall, R&B, and funk.
Its signatures? Syncopated rhythms. Layered percussion. Melodic hooks. A beat you feel in your chest.
The genre’s early architects, D’banj, 2Baba (formerly 2Face Idibia), Don Jazzy, and groups like P-Square, created music that was local in identity but global in appeal. Singing in English, Pidgin, and Yoruba, they built a sound that reflected urban African youth culture: bold, modern, rooted.
With limited access to traditional music industry infrastructure, artists turned to YouTube, SoundCloud, and social media to share their sound beyond the continent. The African diaspora, especially in cities like London, Toronto, and New York, played a vital role in championing and exporting the genre.
Artists like Wizkid, Davido, Tiwa Savage, and Burna Boy helped propel Afrobeats to international stages and major award shows. Wizkid’s “Ojuelegba” became a breakthrough anthem, marking a turning point in the genre’s global recognition as Afrobeats began reaching wider audiences around the world.
It wasn’t long until pop heavyweights started jumping on remixes and chasing the Afrobeats sound.
Afrobeats is now a global rhythm shaping the sound of modern music. Its infectious grooves and genre-blending versatility have influenced everything from mainstream pop to Latin music, K-pop, and EDM.
And right here in Canada, artists like Nonso Amadi, Töme, and King Cruff are incorporating Afrobeats into their sound, adding their own diasporic perspectives to the mix and pushing the genre in exciting new directions.
Because Black artists, particularly West African creators, made it that way. Afrobeats is the sound of joy, pride, and movement. It didn’t come from industry formulas or market trends. It came from the streets. From Lagos. From Accra. From Black creativity in motion.
So the next time the drums pull you to the dancefloor?
You can thank Black Music for that.
Featured image: Nonso Amadi.
