Afrobeats has become one of the most recognizable sounds in the world today. From Burna Boy selling out stadiums in London, to Wizkid winning a Grammy, and Rema’s Calm Down topping charts globally, the genre is no longer confined to Nigeria or Africa, it’s a worldwide phenomenon. But as the sound spreads, so does the debate: who really owns Afrobeats?
The Nigerian Roots
Afrobeats with an “s”, traces back to Nigeria and Ghana in the early 2000s. Artists like D’banj, 2Baba, P-Square, and Wizkid helped shape its modern identity. It’s a fusion of Afro-pop, dancehall, highlife, and hip-hop. Nigeria became the cultural engine of Afrobeats, with Lagos as its epicenter. For many Nigerians, Afrobeats is not just a sound, it’s a national export, a cultural pride, and increasingly, a global currency.
The African Claim
While Nigeria has been the loudest voice, other African countries have contributed significantly. Ghana, for example, played a big role in the birth of the sound. Highlife’s rhythms, fused with hiplife and Azonto, seeped into Nigerian music to shape what we now call Afrobeats. Artists like Sarkodie, Shatta Wale, and Stonebwoy remind the world that Afrobeats isn’t Nigeria alone, it’s African.
Diaspora Rebranding
As the sound moved abroad, especially to the UK and US, it picked up a new layer of identity. In London, African immigrants championed Afrobeats nights and radio stations. DJs, promoters, and even non-African artists began shaping how the world heard the music. Drake’s collaboration with Wizkid on One Dance (2016) blurred the lines further, while Beyoncé’s The Lion King: The Gift (2019) packaged Afrobeats for a global pop audience.
This diaspora influence has created friction. Many Nigerians argue that Afrobeats is being watered down, rebranded, or even misnamed abroad. For instance, some American journalists and labels often confuse Afrobeats (the pop sound) with Afrobeat (Fela Kuti’s genre). The labeling problem raises a sensitive question about if Afrobeats becomes fully globalized, will Africans still control its narrative?
The Battle for Ownership
Ownership here is less about legal rights and more about cultural identity.
• Nigeria’s stance: Afrobeats was born here, we shaped it, we exported it.
• Ghana’s stance: The DNA of Afrobeats is partly ours, through highlife and hiplife.
• Diaspora stance: We globalized it, pushed it into Western markets, and built the bridges.
Even within Nigeria, debates rage over if Afrobeats is a “genre” or just a label for all contemporary African music. Burna Boy once argued that Afrobeats lacks “substance” as a label, before apologizing much later. Wizkid also prefers to call his music simply “music.”
So, Who Really Owns It?
The truth is complex. Afrobeats is Nigerian at its core, African in its contributions, and global in its spread. It is a shared sound but the identity battle is really about who gets to tell the story, control the narrative, and reap the benefits.
With major record labels now setting up shop in Lagos and signing Afrobeats artists, the stakes are high. If Africans don’t guard the roots of the genre, the global industry could reshape it into something unrecognizable just as happened with jazz, rock, and reggae in the past.
Afrobeats belongs to everyone who has shaped it, but its heartbeat will always be African. The battle for genre identity is ongoing, and perhaps that is its beauty. Afrobeats, like Africa itself, is not one thing, but many things. It’s a blend of rhythms, cultures, and voices that together form the sound of a continent rising.