The Four Giants of African Music: Afrobeats, Amapiano, Francophone, and Bongo Flava!
- Bobby Nishimwe
- Oct 30, 2022
- 7 min read
Updated: Nov 8, 2022
You probably are already familiar with afrobeats, because you’ve listened to “essence” by Wizkid ft. Tems, “love nwantiti” by CKay or “Last Last” by Burna Boy. But just like many global consumers of African music, you may not be as familiar with the other popular African sounds hailing from Southern, Central and Eastern Africa.
Well, as always I am here to help you get cultured on the diverse musical forms stemming from the greatest continent on the planet.
Don’t argue with me, argue with your father!
The categories/genres I will be writing about are not a complete representation of all the music sounds that come from all the countries within these four regions of Africa but they are the most popular.
First, we have Afrobeats which is undoubtedly the most popular music category out of the continent of Africa. This overarching umbrella term of West African music is spearheaded by the nation of Nigeria with roots in Ghanian highlife, fuji, Yoruba and Igbo traditional rhythms, Afrobeat, dancehall and even African American music.
The extent to which each of the types of sounds has influenced present-day Afrobeats is an ongoing debate, but the variety of inspirations for this West African music category is a testament to the diversity within the music form.
In its earlier days of late 2000s and early 2010s, Afrobeats started taking off with the likes of P-Square, Flavour, D’Banj, Wizkid, Davido, Sarkodie, Tiwa Savage, Yemi Alade and more.
We cannot have a conversation about influential individuals in Afrobeats without acknowledging the impact that Nigerian record-label owner and producer Don Jazzy has had on this music category. Don Jazzy has housed some of the biggest Nigerian artists under his Mavin Records label with a new fleet of young talent such as Rema, Ayra Starr, LADIPOE, Crayon and more.
Afrobeats has done a lot for the African music industry with record-breaking streaming numbers and earnings by African artists, and increased global recognition of music from the continent.
Second, we have Amapiano which I’d argue is the hottest music genre to come out of the continent. This genre is by far my favorite African music sound, because it is truly a spiritual experience when you indulge in its beautiful melodies and beat rhythms. Amapiano representing Southern Africa hails from, you guessed it, South Africa. This genre has roots in the streets of townships, afro-house (Kwaito, zulu traditional sounds) and jazz.
The tempo and sound level changes of the beat throughout a song is what makes Amapiano special. An amapiano song usually starts with a very chill, slow and heavy instrumental repetitive flow as a way to spiritually draw you into the moment. Then you will have a build up in the tempo followed by a hard beat drop that leaves your body in an uncontrollable state of movement.
Amapiano is to African DJs what Hip Hop was to DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, DJ Clue, DJ Premier, Lil John and more. The reason being that Amapiano leaves a great deal of room for a DJ to mix and play around with the sound due to its variability in tempo and rhythm change.
I have attended two South African functions with DJ Maphorisa and Major League DJz; those are by far the most unforgettable DJ experiences one can have. Being together with other Africans, mostly South Africans and Zimbabwens listening to some of the top African DJs mix live the hottest Amapiano tracks with the customary whistles going off in the crowds for hours on end was about as cathartic of an experience one can get through a musical undertaking.
Amapiano has given us amazing DJs and producers from the ones mentioned above to Kabza De Small, Master KG, Uncle Waffles, Dj Zinhle, TxC, and Black Coffee who is arguably the biggest African DJ globally. South African DJz are artists, performers and producers in their own right. This genre has broadened the face of DJ culture in Africa with its welcoming and supportive atmosphere for female DJs.
Third, we have Francophone music which many of us African kids grew up on with songs like “premier gauo” by Magic System, “etat-major” by Extra Musica, “yolele” by Papa Wemba, “loi” by Koffi Olomide, and “Karolina” & “coupé bibamba” by Awilo Longomba and Jocelyne Beroard. As you may have noticed, most of these artists stem from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Francophone music scene is dominated by sounds, artists and dance forms from DRC. These sounds range from Congolese Rumba (heavily loved by African generations of the 60s and 70s), Kwassa Kwassa, Soukous, Ndombolo, Zouk (French West Indies origin), Kompa (Haitian origin), Makossa (Cameroonian origin), Coupé-décalé (Ivorian origin), and French R&B and Rap.
I cannot express enough as to how influential Congolese music has been to both French and intra-continental music. Congolese are arguably some of the most talented musicians the continent has ever seen, from their dances, vocalists, instruments and fashion; this nation is unmatched.
Francophone music has been hindered from being as popular in the current global African music scene mostly due to the fact that it is usually sung in French. The lingua franca of the global music scene is dominated and heavily favored by anglophone music; although we are seeing a shift with the rise of latin music as reflected by the tremendous year that Puerto Rican artist, Bad Bunny, has had with record breaking numbers in tour earnings, awards, and streams.
Outside of the continent, Francophone music thrives the most in French speaking European countries with France being at the top. Some of the biggest French artists in the world are those of African descent, mostly from Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Senegal and Chad. You have the likes of Fally Ipupa (Congolese), brothers Dadju and GIMS whose father Djanana Djuna was a part of Papa Wemba’s band, MHD, Aya Nakumara, Tayc, KeBlack and more.
Fourth, we have Bongo Flava which is the most popular music genre out of East Africa. This genre is an umbrella term for music stemming out of Tanzania. Bongo described the 90s Tanzanian hip-hop scene which eventually evolved into more melodic sounds with influences from Tanzanian genres like Dansi and Taarab. Over time the genre has taken influences from R&B, Afrobeats, Reggae and more.
In its earlier days, Bongo Flava was started by urban Tanzanian youth mostly from well-to-do families who saw hip-hop as a powerful avenue to express their criticisms of the social, political and economic hardships brought forth by both domestic and global factors such as the world bank’s structural adjustment programs.
Bongo Flava was well suited to grow and take over East Africa, since it featured sounds and the language of Swahili which were already popular in the rest of the region. This genre started to gain notice outside of East Africa around mid 2010s when Diamond Platnumz released a remix of his hit song “Number One” with Davido.
Diamond Platnumz, who is undoubtedly the top East African artist has gone on to win and gain nominations for continental and global awards. He is also the biggest African-based artist on youtube with the highest subscribers and total views. Before the rise of Diamond Platnumz in the 2010s, BongoFlava was not the lucrative music industry that it is today. Diamond Platnumz is charging $70k — $100k for international shows, private jet travel accommodation, $100k for a ten minute Kenyan presidential campaign performance and owns arguably the most successful record label in East Africa, WCB Wasafi. This label now has arms in television and radio networks, sports betting and more.
Some of the top Tanzanian artists such as Harmonize, Rayvanny and Zuchu all hail from WCB.
Bongo Flava has a roster of amazing artists from Nandy, Alikiba, Mbosso, Jux, Lady Jaydee, Vanessa Mde, Marioo, Ibraah, Jay Melody, Barnaba, Loui and more.
Tanzanian artists understand that in order to get their sound out to a more global audience they must incorporate the various popular African genres into their own music. Recently a lot of Bongo artists have collaborated with Afrobeats and Amapiano artists, even going to the lengths of working with producers from these regions and infusing a Swahili flava into those genres.
Collaborating with artists, producers and writers from different regions of the continent in hopes of putting a local spin on their sounds is not solely a Bongo Flava phenomenon.
For example, the Afrobeats industry has strategically infused Amapiano beats into a lot of their newly released music, notably from the likes of Asake, Davido, Burna Boy, Naira Marley and more. The same goes for Amapiano. A lot of the DJs, artists, writers and producers from South Africa are constantly working with artists from both Nigeria and Tanzania.
My predictions going forward is that increased cross-regional and intra-continental collaborations between Afrobeats, Bongo Flava and Amapiano artists will create a newly defined hybrid afro-bongo-piano sound that can easily attract a fanbase from all over the continent and globe. The African music industry is practicing the true pan-african spirit of Umoja before our eyes.
Francophone artists must find a way to break into the anglophone dominated global African music industry without compromising on their authentic sound loved by their core french speaking fanbase. More and more Afrobeats artists are singing whole songs in Yoruba, a language that is not understood by most Africans, yet these artists have no problem in attracting a global fanbase. That is to say, language shouldn’t be a barrier to growing a global fanbase for Francophone artists but they must continue to participate in global African music festivals and increase tours in places like the US, UK, Canada, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa.
Now, notice that I deliberately excluded North Africa from this conversation; this is solely due to my lack of consumption of music from this region.
I also left out the Portuguese speaking African nations, as I also have limited knowledge on that music form. Having said that, I do know that Angola has a considerable influence in this music category with its romantic dance genre of Kizomba. Musicians that come to mind are Angolan Kizomba artist C4 Pedro, Cape Verdean artists Mayra Andrade and Soraia Ramos as some of the leading artists within the Afro-Portuguese music scene.
At the core of all of these African music categories is dance. African music by law requires that you move your hips, knees, arms, neck, shoulders and feet, basically everything. If you are not dancing to these four music categories, then you are doing it wrong and did not understand the assignment. If you ever go to an African concert, I will bet you good money that everyone will be dancing like it is their career of choice.
Africa has the potential to determine the music taste of the next global generation and I believe we are doing just that!