A while ago, videos surfaced online of Rema and Alpha P’s song before fame, and fans took to social media to draw comparisons between the sound directions of the new Gen acts and their predecessors in the game. Conversations ensued from the Rema and Alpha P video, with Afrobeats fans drawing heavy similarity between their sounds at the time and the version of Wizkid that was releasing music with EME.
Some even went as far as accusing both artists of building their entire soundscape, style and branding on Wizkid. The conversation of the influence of theirs on the new Gen took a new directions as fans started to compare acts. Some said Omah lay draws flow and inspiration from the type of music made by people like Runtown, Tekno, Mr Eazi and Maleek berry, while many drew similarities between Rema’s stage performances and Burna boy.
Fans also dug up and posted videos where acts like Fireboy Dml, Oxlade and YKB said their entire sound is based on or birthed from the foundation laid by Wande Coal.
Wizkid and Wande coal would seem to be the most frequent names in conversations of influence in sound direction. A lot of New Gen artists openly come out to declare Wande Coal’s influence in their sound, but many seem to shy away from the Wizkid conversation, even when it is evident and glaring. This leaves room for wonder. Could it be that they do not want to be masked in his shadow?
Could it be that too many artists already sound like Wizkid and they do not want to be grouped with the bandwagon? Do they get conversations and activity off the debate from fans arguing whether there’s a direct influence or not? Also, What does this say about Wande Coal? How important is he to the sound definition of Afrobeats?
Why do almost all the next Gen acts declare love for him and acknowledge his influence in their sound? Is he the template? Does this contribute to his relevance and longevity, considering that people biting off his sound will keep his sound direction active? Why do we not see a lot of collaborations involving Wande from the new Gen even though they all kneel at his stool publicly? It runs even deeper.
Recently, we’ve seen some of the biggest next Gen artists pay direct homage to Wande and his influence on their albums, with Fireboy making a song titled Wande’s Bop and Ayra Starr sampling Wande’s You Bad on Jazzy’s song, all in the same year. Oxlade also mentioned Wande coal in his recent post on X where he was giving accolades to people that helped birth the O. F. A album he just released. The main question is, what’s the template and sound direction of Afrobeats based on? What defines Afrobeats?
We seem to be at a phase where we are at risk. Risk of foreign theft. Risk of colonization and change of ownership. The money financing Afrobeats is Western. It’s only normal that the West would want to influence what their money is spent on and other areas where it goes to. It’s okay to be comfortable with the fact that they weill influence the product because they are financing the product.
Till now, a lot of artists pay homage to Fela. Some say their sound is influenced by him. Some acknowledge him for who he was to African music. Some just because he is Fela. How many artists in the next 30 years would say they draw inspiration from Wizkid? How many would pay homage to Rema, or Burna Boy when right now everyone wants to create their genres now?
Half the industry sounds like different versions of Wizkid. A percentage writes like Burna. Now, everyone is biting melodies and sound direction off Rema and Omah Lay. Amazingly, everyone denies it. Everyone is a pioneer of a new genre by their own words alone. Where do we draw the line? What is Afrobeats? What’s the true sound of the genre?
Rema dropped his sophomore album and released a lot of statements. He said his album was designed to take Afrobeats back to it’s roots. The album had heavy Mara, Hip Hop and Uptempo influences, so are those our roots? Omah Lay said his forthcoming album is going to be one of the greatest Afrobeats albums of all time. This writer is excited to see what the sound direction is like, more than anything, simply because of that statement. Is Afrobeats a genre, movement or a culture ?
