Afrobeat is a title, not a genre – Seun Kuti

Seun Kuti, a Grammy-nominated Afrobeat musician, believes that Afrobeats is more of a title than a genre

He argues that Afrobeats lacks stylistic consistency and is instead a broad label for music from Africa.

According to Kuti, Afrobeats artists frequently blend different styles, making it hard to pinpoint a specific sound.

Kuti notes that even top artists and executives don’t treat Afrobeats as a defined genre, but rather as a marketing tag.

He points out that Amapiano is currently a trending sound within the Afrobeats umbrella, further blurring genre lines.

Kuti said: “I think Afrobeats is more of a title than a genre. You can see Amapiano is the new Afrobeats. It’s the new title, it’s the new thing in Afrobeats. So, Afrobeats is just a generalisation; it’s just a title to identify something from a particular place [Africa].

“I don’t think it’s a genre. Even the gatekeepers, the big names don’t deal with it like a genre, they don’t work it like a genre. They are [Afrobeats] artists that are eclectic in a way that they could do a dancehall track today, do a blue track tomorrow, do a Nigerian pop sound, jump on Amapiano, and whatever that is trending. So, I think it’s actually a title,”