By Thomas Peretu
Kindly allow me to emphatically declare that there’s no genre of music called Afro beats. The popular street music trending the world over is nothing more than Afro HipHop, originated by Junior and Pretty, a youthful pidgin rap group. They took the nation by storm in the nineties with “Bolanle.” In addition to a couple of other artistes based in Ajegunle. Hence, to dub the current wave making music as Afro beats is a disservice to the legendary musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the exponent of afro beat music. If it is not Afro beat, it ca never be Afro beat. What the new generation of artistes are playing today is light years away from Afro beat(s). What is being dubiously styled as Afro beats is a sexy confection of South African rhythm, makosa and an hatch potch of our indigenous rhythm to create a motif of harmonious African music laced with indigenous languages. This, to ny mind is a faux, an aberration at best. This is not our darling Afro beat as espoused by the legendary and mercurial Fela Kuti.
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