Flavour joins growing list of artistes to distance self from afrobeats, reveals music genre

• Singer Flavour has opened up on why he is not bothered that there is more concentration on Afrobeats music.
• He noted that although his colleagues Davido, Wizkid, and Burna Boy, among others, are put more in the spotlight, his kind of music is also top-notch.
• The Game Changer crooner added that Africans are doing more things that should be talked about aside from music.

Ace Nigerian singer, Chinedu Okoli, popularly known as Flavour, has distanced himself from the Afrobeats genre.

Appearing on a recent episode of the ‘Afrobeats Podcast’ hosted by Shopsydoo, Flavour explained that he is not bothered about not being credited for the global rise of Nigeria’s Afrobeats genre because he is not an Afrobeats artiste.

He stated that he deserves recognition for his contribution to African music but that is not coming because the media promotes only Afrobeats as a genre from Africa. Flavour said:

“I don’t feel bad when I’m not given credit on the global rise of African music because what the media is talking about is Afrobeats. I’m not an Afrobeats artiste,”

“What I’m doing is African music. There are guys like Fally Ipupa, Diamond Platinumz who are pushing African music globally that are not Afrobeats artists.

“Most times, the media just talks about Afrobeats. They are not talking about African music. If you talk about African music, of course, you should mention my name.”

The High-life crooner urged the media to promote not just Afrobeats but other popular African genres.

In April, Davido denounced Afrobeats after Wizkid, Burna Boy and Fireboy recently ditched the genre.

Appearing on the latest edition of the Business Untitled Podcast, the ‘OBO’ crooner lamented the “boxing” of all African artists into the Afrobeats genre regardless of their musical styles. He said:

“The first place that accepted African music outside Africa is the UK before America later joined. The UK termed African music Afrobeats.

“Afrobeat is a sound that was originally pioneered by Fela Kuti. But now all African songs are termed Afrobeats. 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.

“I don’t get offended when we’re being categorised as Afrobeats. I mean, we need a genre. It could be R&B or Afropop. I call my music Afrofusion but I’m not big on ‘Oh put Afrofusion on my song.’ I know how long it took for African music to become mainstream.”