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Wizkid Reveals Why He Doesn't Want To Be Tagged An Afrobeat Artist

Nigerian music sensation Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, better known as Wizkid, has clarified his contentious statement distancing himself from Afrobeat.

It should be noted that Wizkid while announcing his new album, cautioned Nigerians against categorizing him as an Afrobeat artist.

He went on to warn bloggers against posting his new album.

Wizkid did not stop there, as he read the riot acts and advised those who fell in love with him during the Pakurumo era not to download his new album.

He also advised Afrobeat fans not to download his music.

Many people were outraged by his statement, accusing him of disrespecting the musical genre that paved the way for him.

Wizkid, in self-defense, reiterated his remarks and provided a more thorough explanation, pointing out that he creates music that is boxed in or generic.

He told Nigerians to educate themselves, saying that even if he is an African artist, he makes good music and does not want to be labelled as an Afrobeat artist.

He emphasised that, regardless of how good or amazing our music is, all African artists are nominated in the same category at the Grammys or other international awards.

The Grammy-winning artist stated that the late Fella was the creator of Afrobeat.

However, he is more than just an Afrobeat artist, as Made in Lagos is a blend of several genres.

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Taking to his Instagram story section, he composed,

"U lost people always want someone to educate you. U got your phone, Google, research shit, or take a flight and see the world don't be ignorant and stup!D all the time. Listen, am I African? Yes! But I do make all kinds of music! But I don't want these labeled just Afrobeats. That's like saying every American artists make rap. That's stup!D. This is why no matter how good or amazing the music we make be it RnB it whatever other genre, we all get nominated in one African category or the other. I've made songs from different genres of music. Made in Lagos is not an "Afrobeats" album. That's a fusion of different sounds. Real music! The word Afrobeats was made up by y'all to put all we make into a box. Female created Afrobeat!! I make all sorts of music. Fusion of sounds!I'm on artiste before anything else. True to my art.Not scared to try shit. Now y'all drink some milk".

SEE POST:

Why Wizkid No Wan Dey Recognised As 'Afrobeats' Artiste

Wia dis foto come from, Getty Images

17 March 2024

Nigerian Superstar, Ayodeji Balogun wey pipo sabi well-well as Wizkid don dey cause confusion on top social media for some times now wit some of im posts.

Di one wey make pipo para pass na di one e drop dis weekend, wen e announce say im no be "Afrobeat artiste".

Afrobeats na one genre of music dem dey majorly categorise many African music under.

For plenti Instagram story wey run into late Saturday night, di musician wey dey call im self Big Wiz bin originally write say, "Abeg if you like Pakurumo Wizkid no download dis music" come later add say "if you like afrobeats, no download my album".

E add say "I no be afrobeats artiste, no call me dat. I no be Afro anytin."

Dis na as im dey tease im new studio album, wey dem dey call Morayo. According to am, di album na complete package.

For di now deleted Instagram story, e reveal di full reason why e no wan dey linked to di music genre, Afrobeats.

Wizkid explain say, "Listen I be African but I dey make all kain music, fine Music. But I no wan make dem just pack dem put as afrobreats. E be like to say every American dey make rap. E dey stupid."

E add say, "Na why no mata di kain ogbonge music wey we make weda na RnB or any oda genre, dem go nominate us inside one African category or di oda.

"I don make songs from different genres of music. Made in Lagos no be 'afrobeats' album. Na mix of different sounds. Real music."

Wia dis foto come from, Instagram/@wizkidayo

How dis Wizkid tok, affect pipo?

Following im post, thousands of pipo enta social media to hala on top di latest tori from di desk of Big Wiz imself.

While some pipo bin support im choice say e no wan dey for league of Afrobeats artiste, oda pipo call am out either for wetin e tok or how e take tok am.

Pipo also call out fans wey yab Burna Boy wen im try separate imself for di Afrobeats name inside one interview for 2022.

Howeva, some pipo still dey reason di artiste mental health on top say, e dey comot more and more to troway yab on top social media.

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Wizkid no be di first Nigerian artiste to distance imself from Afrobeat.

For 2022, Grammy Winner, Burna Boy do interview wia e hala say wetin e dey do na Afro-Fusion and say im no be no be Afrobeat musician.

For di interview, Burna Boy clear di air say di sound wey Fela bin pioneer sef na Afrobeat not Afrobeats, but pipo lump togeda most Nigerian music for Afrobeats.

Although, Davido no say e no be Afrobeats artiste, for interview wit TMZ, e reveal say im get some kain RnB hits for im discography and say Afrobeats na wetin dem use encompass all di music from Nigeria.

Anoda Nigerian star, Tems, also refuse to term her music as Afrobeats. She say, "for di world view, objectively, my music na Alternative Afro Soul and RnB".

How International audience use music charts and Awards class Afrobeats

Wizkid worry about putting all brands of African music under Afrobeat no just comot from nowia.

For March 2022, Billboard wey be di music publication wey dey drop music charts every week, introduce di "Billboard US Afrobeats Songs" chart.

And Wizkid, Burna Boy and Tems, all of whom categorize dia music say e no be Afrobeats still feature for inside.

Infact di pesin wey be number one for di charts as at di time wey dis tori dey comot na Tyla wey describe her type of music for her website as pop.

Dem bin also introduce two Afrobeats categories for 2023 wey Burna Boy win Best Afrobeats act and Rema carry di best Afrobeats song for im ogbonge hit, Calm Down.

For 2023, MTV add di Best Afrobeats as new category in August.

Wizkid win di first Best Afrobeats Artist for di 2022 American Music Awards.

Wia dis foto come from, Getty Images

Wetin we call dis foto,

Burna Boy and Tems don tok for different interviews say dia music no be Afrobeats but dem dey inside Afrobeats categories for awards abroad

Wetin come ginger di rise in popularity for Afrobeats?

You fit no believe di first Nigerian sound wey catch Grammy ear from di kontri gan-gan.

Na for 1983, King Sunny Ade wey be Juju musician go become di first Nigerian out of di kontri to collect nomination for Best World Music Album for im albu, Odu.

But back to di mata of Afrobeats, na Fela Anikulapo Kuti popularise di Afrobeat sound.

Fela brand of music bin dey more instrumental based and e bin dey use am to sing about wetin don scata for Nigeria back in di day.

Years later, di sound of Afrobeats start to dey become popular all ova Africa even enta London and start to dey enta into music awards listings all ova di world.

Dis push in di popularity of Afrobeats, bin get beta benefits for many sounds across di continent to get chance to thrive for di international market. Howeva, na wia di kasala to dey call all kain African music Afrobeats take start from.

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Another thing we de for inside dis tori

This Week's Best New Songs

At Paste Music, we're listening to so many new tunes on any given day, we barely have any time to listen to each other. Nevertheless, every week we can swing it, we take stock of the previous seven days' best tracks, delivering a weekly playlist of our favorites. Check out this week's best new songs, in alphabetical order. (You can check out an ongoing playlist of our favorite songs of 2024 here.)

Adrianne Lenker: "Free Treasure"

Singer-songwriter Adrianne Lenke's fourth and final single from her highly anticipated upcoming album Bright Future—which recently earned Paste's highest album rating since 2008—"Free Treasure" is crafted with delicate layers of finger-picked guitar and lilting harmonies wrapped in genuine affection. The folk track burns steadily in its tender, rustic sound, emanating a tangible nostalgic warmth. Lenker speaks of love in simple tasks and gestures, in moments rife with wild raspberries and apples, in cooking dinner and dancing. She sings, "You show me understanding / Patience and pleasure / Time and attention / Love without measure." "Free Treasure" kindles a glowing sentimentality that stays with you long after listening. —Grace Ann Natanawan

Alena Spanger: "Steady Song"

Alena Spanger softens things up ahead of the release of her solo debut, Fire Escape. On "Steady Song," the Brooklyn singer-songwriter steps out on her own after leading the art rock band Tiny Hazard for five years. Spanger's upcoming album has the same unpredictability that her former band's work yielded, but with a silkier approach—not forgetting to add those electronic flourishes from her Tiny Hazard days. "Steady Song" is an airy track about finding a way to simply feel okay. "Steady, I'm lying in the grass / Pushing those thoughts back," Spanger lilts in the opening line, before the misty track warms up to a sunny melody of hope to wrap up Fire Escape's inward reflection. —Olivia Abercrombie

Bat For Lashes: "Letter To My Daughter"

Natasha Khan—aka Bat For Lashes—is set to release The Dream of Delphi, her first new album in five years, at the end of May, and new single "Letter To My Daughter" will bring you to an emotional standstill and then, swiftly, heave you off the cliff. The album, named after Khan's daughter Delphi, is a striking portrayal of becoming a mother and bringing another person into this world, especially during quarantine—and "Letter To My Daughter" is poetic and electronic. "Your life, an echo, my darling, of all before," Khan sings. "You're life, an echo, my darling, of all to come. And yes, you're a song." The folklorish nature of the song's synthesizer-driven spectrum of heartache, undying love and non-negotiable worry is so visceral that, once the track fades out, the strings will still be vibrating inside you. "Letter To My Daughter" is graceful and generous. —Matt Mitchell

Bess Atwell: "Fan Favourite"

Brighton singer-songwriter Bess Atwell dips into nostalgia on "Fan Favourite," the fourth single from her upcoming LP, Light Sleeper—which was produced by the National's Aaron Dessner (Taylor Swift, Gracie Abrams, Sharon Van Etten). "Fan Favourite" reaches into an external sentimentality, one that Atwell discovered while watching a wrap party of an old TV show—leading her to imagine what a wrap party of her own life would be like. Her voice draws you in with a breezy ease, singing, "But I feel time moving / Without or with me." Atwell accesses the ache of a fleeting life with the gorgeous brass arrangement drifting throughout the track like a fading memory. It's a real triumphant display. —OA

Bill MacKay: "Glow Drift"

Chicago folk experimentalist Bill MacKay's latest offering, "Glow Drift," is a terrific instrumental cut that blisses out with a summery guitar melody and featherlight rhythmic backbone. The track is spacious, vivid and, in MacKay's own words, celebratory. You can hear that vibrancy jump out from the beginning, as MacKay shuffles across tones—unraveling joy beneath the riffage of his own axe. The percussion lands someplace between Beggars Banquet-era Stones and the ambiance of a jazz club you might stumble into at the turn of midnight. "Glow Drift" is a stroke of cool illuminated by a driving compositional finesse. —MM

Cloud Nothings: "I'd Get Along"

We already loved "Running Through The Campus," but there's something even more special about Cloud Nothings' latest single, "I'd Get Along." The Cleveland indie rockers, led by vocalist/guitarist Dylan Baldi, capture a dagger hook and pummel you with it accordingly. There's nothing dolled up about "I'd Get Along"; it's just a hard-nosed, tough-as-nails rock tune that finds Baldi hamming up his vocals into a fine-tuned howl. The song only has two lines—"If something would happen with me, I'd get along"—but it packs a punch and showers you in fuzzed-out distortion. "I'd Get Along" is heavy, yet some flashes of pop melody still cut through the crunch. —MM

Fresh: "Merch Girl"

In their newest song, Fresh gives a shoutout to the unsung heroes of the music industry: the merch girls. "Merch Girl" is the first release from the London pop-punk band since their 2022 album, Raise Hell, and the spunky track details a space caught between dreaming, achieving a goal and seeing others accomplish what you want. "I'm tired of living like this / Letting people talk over me for years / Gonna start doing things my way," vocalist Kathryn Woods shouts in frustration. The song is an empowering message to all women in music who fear they are voiceless, and Fresh captures a youthful kind of optimism with upbeat melodic guitars—dressed up especially with Woods's growl of discontent. It's a short tune that mimics the path of so many musicians who feel out of place to be making their art. —OA

Ghostly Kisses: "Crimson"

The fourth single from Québec singer-songwriter Margaux Suavé—the voice at the center of Ghostly Kisses—is a debonair slice of electro-pop. "Crimson" pairs Suavé's hushed vocals with technicolor synthesizers, resulting in a club-ready track that is best-suited to be listened to alone. It's that duality that makes it shine, however, as Suavé sings out "We'll find a way, relieved from heavy chains and hollow pain" while light flourishes of electronica set aglow beneath her voice. "Crimson" is angry and unsettled, yet that profound intensity never ruptures. Echoing the tragic death of Mahsa Amini, Suavé maintains a gentle composure throughout, allowing their singing to be the emotional anchor. It's an epic portrayal of post-modern pain, told through the voice of lurid synths and a crushing, haunting violin. —MM

Grace Cummings: "Ramona"

On the title-track of Gace Cummings' forthcoming LP Ramona, the Australian singer-songwriter references "two of the most momentous songs" in her life: "To Ramona" by Bob Dyland and "If I Were King of the Forest" from The Wizard of Oz. Cummings' robust vocals glide across the track with ease, effortlessly hitting dynamic highs and falling into more subtle spaces. The track saunters forward, relishing in its buzzy and sparse atmosphere. She sings of the struggle to find a real sense of bravery and confidence, painting a feverish portrait of her experience. On "Ramona," Cummings' emotive vocal performance ties the track into an urgent and burning sermon of personal examination. —GN

h. Pruz: "Dawn"

In anticipation for the release of their debut album, No Glory, next week Hannah Pruzinsky—aka h. Pruz—has unveiled one more single: "Dawn." As a follow-up to "I Keep Changing," one of our favorite songs of that week, "Dawn" is saccharine and gentle, riding the subtle energy of a fingerplucked lead guitar and a dash of synths set aglow nearby underneath. It's a love song that finds Pruzinsky unable to shake a building worry, and it grows to be as heartbreaking as it is hopeful. "I hold you when I wake up, count the creases and the crows," they sing. "There's a heaviness to the morning. Not from you, you should know." There's a blanket of sincerity running throughout, one that captures just how beautiful an arrangement sounds when Pruzinsky's voice is guiding it through intervals of painstakingly vivid yet solemn emotion—culminating in a final couplet that'll swallow you whole: "We can do whatever we want to, and you make me wanna do it all." —MM

Hot Joy: "Folded Tongue"

St. Louis-based Hot Joy is back with another rocker off their debut EP, Small Favor. The minute-and-a-half track was the first song that Austin McCutchen—formerly of Choir Vandals—wrote for his new punky outfit, and "Folded Tongue" is about the battle between embracing confrontation to make life easier in the long run—even if you are deathly afraid of standing up to someone. Although the short track doesn't leave much space for contemplation, the fuzzed-out arrangement hits us in the gut with a standstill opening line: "Don't separate the fact and fiction / I need it in the world right now." "Folded Tongue" is a quick blast of grungy energy and brazen lyricism from a blossoming lo-fi band you ought to look out for. —OA

Lightning Bug: "Opus"

New York band Lightning Bug's latest single is a self-described "dystopian folk song written for a post-apocalyptic fantasy saga." The track is packed with subtle and rumbling builds that sharply contrast with band member Audrey Kang's slick vocals. The twinkling instrumental rises and falls in organic breaths, treading a line of suspense and urgency that carries the track along. A low and ringing bassline slivers through these sections of tension, articulating a growing persistence in the instrumental. "Opus" is a distinct single that burns with careful intention and a cinematic sense of drama. —GN

Parsnip: "Turn to Love"

From their upcoming album Behold, Melbourne band Parsnip arrive with a new single inspired by a 16th-century song written by the Indian mystic Mirabai. The track evokes the sweet, psychedelic pop of the '60s with its bright, ringing harmonies, melodic bassline and swirling organ. The nearly four-minute track whizzes by quicker than you'd expect, breezing past in a summery, carefree surf-rock haze. It's deeply catchy and demands to be repeated, and its gleeful lyrics urge listeners to "turn to love" in their lives as they move through the world. Band member Paris Rebel describes the song as a "plea" for listeners to choose love as they look within themselves, and "Turn to Love" is a lush, light-hearted pop-tune that reaches grandiose sonic heights. —GN

The Decemberists: "Joan in the Garden"

Portland folk ensemble the Decemberists are no stranger to putting out long songs. One of their most-beloved tunes, "The Mariner's Revenge Song," flirts with a nine-minute runtime and, 20 years ago, they put out an EP called The Tain that featured just one 18-minute track. Their latest release, in turn, arrives to showcase how far the Colin Meloy-led group has come since their LP, 2018's I'll Be Your Girl. "Joan in the Garden" is 19 minutes and unrelenting, as it traverses through a half-dozen bodies, noises and altitudes before culminating in one of the best three-minute breakdowns you've heard in a while. Not since Bob Dylan released "Murder Most Foul" have we seen a revered artist climb this tall of a mountain for the lead single of a record, but the Decemberists pull it off with ease. Inspired by Joan of Arc, "Joan in the Garden" packs in ambient chapters and massive riffs and a hallucinating energy that registers like a fever dream. It's a wall-to-wall thrill. —MM

Wild Pink: "Unconcious Pilot"

A part of a surprise three-song EP, Strawberry Eraser, released this morning, Wild Pink's "Unconcious Pilot" is yet another reverb-heavy slice of alt-folk that mangles itself into sublime, bulky distortion. "Unconcious Pilot" isn't as melodic as its predecessor, but it doesn't need to be—the fortune is all in the gloomy chords and cavernous singing from Ross. "What if the soul is real?" he ponders. "And it gets lost on the way to the next deal? What a nightmare, knowing you're out there dead and scared and there ain't a thing I can do." Following the momentum of previous single "Air Drumming Fix You," John Ross and the crew pair a fluttering saxophone with weighty guitars, as if a jazz ensemble accidentally stumbled into a noise-band's rehearsal—all culminating in a storm of flanged strumming, as Ross declares: "I hope it's nothing." —MM

Other Notable Songs: Amy O ft. Glenn Myers: "Dribble Dribble"; Another Michael: "Mudslide"; Bad Bad Hats: "My Heart Your Heart"; Desire: "Darkside"; FACS: "North America Endless"; Frail Body: "Horizon Line"; Hot Mulligan: "Stickers of Brian"; Jade Hairpins: "Unreliable"; John Grant: "It's A Bitch"; Lionlimb: "Hurricane"; Maggie Rogers: "So Sick of Dreaming"; Maya Hawke: "Dark"; Mister Goblin: "The Notary"; mui zyu ft. Lei, e: "sparky"; No Windows: "Zodiac 13"; One Step Closer: "Giant's Despair"; Pokey LaFarge: "One Me, One You"; Shabaka ft. Andre 3000, Floating Points, Esperanza Spalding & Laraaji: "I'll Do Whatever You Want"; Two Shell & FKA twigs: "Talk To Me"; Vampire Weekend: "Classical"; Wisp: "Enough for you"

Check out a playlist of these great songs below.

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