Fireboy DML gave a distinct explanation of the difference between Afrobeat and Afrobeats.
The Nigerian artist sat down for a conversation with Billboard. The Afrobeats star spoke about his interest in making music, and his many notable collaborations with Ed Sheeran on Peru, Blaqbonez, Jon Bellion, and Madonna. He also spoke about how he feels about the Grammys finally recognizing Afrobeats, mixing Afrobeats and country music.
The superstar has three successful albums under his belt – Playboy (2022), Apollo (2020), and Love, Tears and Goosebumps (LTG) (2019). During his Interview with Tetris Kelly, the Afrobeat singer gave a history lesson about the origination and difference between Afrobeat and Afrobeats.
He said “No matter where we find ourselves we will take whatever we can find and adapt. Fela the godfather of Afrobeat took his essence, his own culture, and mixed it with Jazz and made what we know as Afrobeat. He passed it down. This is apart from the Fuji, Juju which is our own stuff. That’s the same thing we do. We take our own culture and mix it with pop. People like Ruger are mixing it with dancehall. People like CKay mixing it with R&B. Rema is mixing it with Afropop”.
The artist who attended the 66th Grammy Award Black Music Collectives Party spoke on his experience. Fireboy, Davido, Asake, Blaqbonez, Sarz, and other Nigerian artists were also in attendance. Speaking on his experience he said, “It was amazing. It was a brand new experience for me. It was glamorous seeing all those people or those talents, you know, people that look up to. I saw Lenny Kravitz, I saw Jay-Z. Yeah, it was an amazing experience for me”.
