For the past two years, African music has found its way into the United States which is synonymous to the music capital of the world.

The Billboard charts and deals from music corporations in the U.S. are no more strange feats for African acts especially the Nigerian ones.

The reception received by the One Africa Music Fest held in July is a testament to the growing control African music is having on the U.S. music scene.

For this reason, American newspaper, The Washington Post took a look at this emerging influence in an article titled “Is this the year that African music will conquer the United States?”

Here are 6 things we learnt from the article;

1. The Washington Post is of the opinion that Wizkid was the one who assisted Drake in terms of the outstanding success of One Dance and surprisingly not the other way round.

The introductory part of the article reads “while Drake is known to assist rising stars such as Migos and iloveMakonnen, on “One Dance,” he was the one who got a boost, from singer Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, better known as Wizkid.”

This is an African music artiste who had no verse on the song but 19 seconds of background ad-libs. These days, people hardly remember the other UK artiste, Kyla who had a major part in the song.

This only goes to highlight how much Wizkid has made use of the opportunity. Just imagine if he had turned down the opportunity because he had only 19 seconds on the song.

Let’s be honest, the song will certainly be a hit irregardless of his input but guess who is credited by one of the biggest newspapers in America for helping probably the biggest artiste in the world at the moment – Drake land his 1st No.1 on a Billboard chart – Wizkid. In one word, amazing!

2. The Washington Post believes modern Afrobeats is not the same founded by the legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Rather it describes it as “a fidgety musical hybrid mashing Afro-pop, Caribbean soca and American hip-hop.” They are spot on.

 

3. The newspaper sees African music artistes such as Nigeria’s Davido and Ayo Jay, South Africa’s first BET award winner, Black Coffee; Ghana’s Sarkodie becoming ‘permanent fixtures on both the U.S. pop charts and in the dance music underground’.

 

 

4. According to the newspaper, the highly successful One Africa music fest which held in July has indeed contributed to the rise of African music in the U.S. as the event provided an opportunity for American music fans to see the elements of that African sound in their own music.

5. The influence of African music has gone beyond just the U.S. music scene but has also surfaced on the political landscape, citing Alicia Keys‘ performance of her Afrobeats-esque song – In Common at the Democratic National Convention in July.

 

6. African music is also shaking the European and the U.S. underground through the likes of Addis Ababa-based electronic producer Mikael Seifu and South Africa’s Culoe De Song – whose singles are a regular fixture on the European club scene and at U.S festivals.