In recent times, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the world is gravitating towards African Music, especially Afrobeats with Nigerians leading the pack. Right from making back-to-back global hits, Nigerians gradually are taking turns in filling up auditorium around the world with eclectic group of people who have found a special fondness for Afrobeats.
With the new crop of Nigerians being instrumental in this change, it was such an interesting moment for one of the young forerunners of the genre, Joeboy, to give some secrets on what makes the Afrobeats special. On the One Show with Tilly Akua Nipaa hosted on Oneplay Africa’s video on demand platform, Oneplayplus, Joeboy iterated that:
“It’s the gbedu, it’s the lamba, it’s the drums, it’s the sound, it’s the melodies, it’s the lyrics, everything. It’s just like a creation of beautiful fusion, it’s like life, it’s colorful, it’s vibrant, so anybody and everybody will actually relate to it one way or the other.”
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Like Ghana, Nigeria also has music majorly centered in their capital city, Lagos. Joeboy takes time to explain that, in Nigeria, once an artist decides to do music fully, majority of them migrate to Lagos mostly because Lagos like Accra has various people from different parts of the country in there so once there is a breakthrough in Lagos, it’s a high possibility it would travel to the rest of the country creating a national hit.
He speaks on how fierce the competition in Nigeria is, how the OGs are putting in the same works as the young new talents. However, he mentions how the population of Nigeria has been instrumental in churning out more talents each year.
“I will say like our population we have like over 200 Million people so no matter how many artists dey, there is always a large number of people that are going to enjoy that music.”
As part of the insightful 16 minutes conversation with Tilly Akua Nipaa, Joeboy also speaks on how the immense the supports from Nigerian gatekeepers like Don Jazzy is crucial to their work. Like Don Jazzy, there are other incredible music leaders in Nigeria who have formed a wall to support these young talents with the main focus of projecting them to the world.
“It’s really important to have someone to look up to, somebody that can show you the way, it helps, it helps avoid lots of mistakes basically. So, it’s very very important.”
Finally, Joeboy says unlike the Ghanaian music space where the numbers are intangible and driving away investors, Nigerian numbers are tangible and palpable making it easy for investors and the government to put in money and benefit from the industry
