Nigerian Artist David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has voiced his reservations about being labeled solely as an Afrobeats artist, joining a growing trend among Nigerian artists.
On the Business Untitled Podcast, he expressed concern over the broad classification of African musicians under the Afrobeats umbrella, regardless of their diverse musical expressions.
While acknowledging the UK’s pivotal role in popularizing African music abroad, Davido highlighted the limitations of categorizing all African songs as Afrobeats, noting that genres like R&B and Afropop offer more accurate descriptors.
Despite identifying his own music as Afrofusion, Davido remains indifferent to being labeled Afrobeats, recognizing the necessity of having a genre while advocating for greater recognition of the distinct styles within African music.
“If an African artiste sings pure R&B, sounding like SZA, Summerwalker, they put them under Afrobeats. If an African rapper rapping like Drake, they still put them under Afrobeats. My sound is Afro Fusion.”
– Davido pic.twitter.com/0DZZGsmdWm
— BASITO (@itzbasito) April 24, 2024
