ADOS Inspired AFROBEAT | Fela Kuti Admits He Found His Blackness In America Through ADOS

[Jean Jacket]

Americans need not fukk up my favorite genre.

 

[Premeditated]

at the end of the day, it still sounds like dancehall than anything else these days

 

[IllmaticDelta]

African American music is a mixture of European musical influence combined with African musical technique dating mellenias and still prominent to this day. This is not to undermine the genius and originality of our ancestors in America. I refuse to be dragged into the same self hating ignorance. But just to point out the flawed logic youre putting out there. Does a European influence attribute African American music--and therefore, by your logic, ALL black music--to white people regardless of who ultimately conceived it? Do whites have permission from you woke hashtag clowns to constantly undermine our entire history and culture using the same ego stroking, insecure logic youre now adapting against your own people?

there is a big difference between being influenced by something as vague as "european harmony" and "african rhythm" and flat out jacking from an entire genre(s) of music.

 

[Jean Jacket]

Wait till bieber, drake, edm djs etc swaggerjack afrobeats...sooner than you might think

 

[K.O.N.Y]

African American music is heavily predicated by Western, European influence and "templates" as you put it. Every technical aspect of modern music that we consider signature of "black music" including lead singer-to-chorus call-and-response structures, pitch/string bending and imitating vocals using instruments, bar-by-bar repetition, polyrythmic melodies/bass lines are of African origin. Most of the vocal techniques we associate almost exclusively with black people, black music, and worship, including the incredible ability to belt, hold, and bend a "high note" is of clear African origins. In fact there are African tribes whos entire societies were based around singing and the ability to do this one thing. Most of the instruments we associate with black music were of African invention, known to our ancestors long before becoming "American." The Guitar and the banjo are both based on various stringed African instruments such as the Kora and the Akonting. The modern piano was invented in Ancient Egypt and is heavily based on Sub-Saharan African instruments like the Marimba, Mbira, and Balafon. I can go on.

African Americans didnt fall from the sky and create the Blues. We weren't swinging joyously in the jungle devoid of a sophisticated culture until the white man brought us to America. We came to America with a wealth of knowledge in navigation, agriculture, architecture, but most especially art and music already in our minds. Its sad that you choose to limit the scope of your history and identity to the moments after you were enslaved, and not the glorious past that is still part of our cultures and identity to this day.

African American music is a mixture of European musical influence combined with African musical technique dating mellenias and still prominent to this day. This is not to undermine the genius and originality of our ancestors in America. I refuse to be dragged into the same self hating ignorance. But just to point out the flawed logic youre putting out there. Does a European influence attribute African American music--and therefore, by your logic, ALL black music--to white people regardless of who ultimately conceived it? Do whites have permission from you woke hashtag clowns to constantly undermine our entire history and culture using the same ego stroking, insecure logic youre now adapting against your own people? African Americans inspired modetn Afrobeat (they did) but your ego cant stand admitting the tremendous inspiration Caribbean DJing and sound system culture had on Hip Hop and still clearly has on Hip Hop?

Again, I dont limit or conflate my pride or history with white people, nor do I measure or conflate my pride in any black liberation movement with the wealth and "opportunity" of the white country it took place in, certainly not to stick my nose up at other black people living in exploited third world nations. What kind of fukked up next level c00nery? This is what passes for pro-black nowadays? Im proud of my people's political advancement and determination everywhere, not just the white countries, so I wont understand this thinking or what you want to prove. I wont be dragged into the ignorance.

If what you want is a dikk measuring contest over whos culture is the most prevalent, globally, then African American culture wins, obviously. American entertainment in general is the most prevelant worldwide. There is no contest here and frankly I think anyone sitting in a third world country could admit that American culture is more dominant then their own. And they can somehow admit that and still take pride in their own culture. Again, how does this undermine black cultural achievements outside of the United States? Is Reggae and Dancehall not also loved all over the world? Is Latin (and by Latin I mean African) dance music not popular around the world? Is West African dance music not gaining new ground in just the past couple years, thanks mostly to American artists actually? The fact these genres outside of America gained such far reach despite originating from penniless third world countries should give you as much pride as the one you hold (albeit, insecurely) for African American culture, risen from plantation fields and impoverished ghettos. Black people are just awesome.

It seems obvious you view black pride entirely through the lens of "the West." A shame. I encourage you to open a book on musical theory and the history of African American music so you can understand how silly this whole topic is.

I guess Im just old school pro-black and dont get what the fukk this is suppose to prove.

African American music is heavily predicated by Western, European influence and "templates" as you put it. Every technical aspect of modern music that we consider signature of "black music" including lead singer-to-chorus call-and-response structures, pitch/string bending and imitating vocals using instruments, bar-by-bar repetition, polyrythmic melodies/bass lines are of African origin. Most of the vocal techniques we associate almost exclusively with black people, black music, and worship, including the incredible ability to belt, hold, and bend a "high note" is of clear African origins. In fact there are African tribes whos entire societies were based around singing and the ability to do this one thing. Most of the instruments we associate with black music were of African invention, known to our ancestors long before becoming "American." The Guitar and the banjo are both based on various stringed African instruments such as the Kora and the Akonting. The modern piano was invented in Ancient Egypt and is heavily based on Sub-Saharan African instruments like the Marimba, Mbira, and Balafon. I can go on.

As far as all the music influence talk. I think @IllmaticDelta and @Supper have already outlined this perfectly. You hopped over responding to their post i see

All african and even european musical inflictions came VIA aframs. It cam through us there is no mommy and daddy role being played here by Africans

African Americans didnt fall from the sky and create the Blues. We weren't swinging joyously in the jungle devoid of a sophisticated culture until the white man brought us to America. We came to America with a wealth of knowledge in navigation, agriculture, architecture, but most especially art and music already in our minds. Its sad that you choose to limit the scope of your history and identity to the moments after you were enslaved, and not the glorious past that is still part of our cultures and identity to this day.

No one is saying we fell from the sky and created blues. We may have been doing negro spirituals and early gospel music for damn near a century or two before the blues was even created if we start the clock at the 1600's. What was learned on the plantation, through us, was pivotal to the creation of modern music and i dont shy away from it. Nor do i do it to our 400 plus year history. Which was glorious within itself. Men and women who were enslaved did incredible things. Its not about "starting your history with Slavery"

If what you want is a dikk measuring contest over whos culture is the most prevalent, globally, then African American culture wins, obviously.

How is stating your cultural claim reduced to a dikk measuring contest. It has nothing to do with "winning"

African Americans inspired modetn Afrobeat (they did) but your ego cant stand admitting the tremendous inspiration Caribbean DJing and sound system culture had on Hip Hop and still clearly has on Hip Hop?

And the same with reggae. But u rarely hear Aframs chest thumping on that. Djs period in that era learned everthing from Funk-disco DJ culture. Nikas are literally trying to speak caribbean influence into existence for their own nefarious motives

And they can somehow admit that and still take pride in their own culture

Extremely disingenuous take. Most see afram cultural leverage and try to undermine or leech off of it. Why are you caping and speaking for outsiders anyway lol


Not even wasting my time with this anymore. Pan africanism is predicated on neutering afram influence to make everyone happy. And alot of us are not standing for it

 

[SupaDupaCool]

As far as all the music influence talk. I think @IllmaticDelta and @Supper have already outlined this perfectly. You hopped over responding to their post i see

All african and even european musical inflictions came VIA aframs. It cam through us there is no mommy and daddy role being played here by Africans



No one is saying we fell from the sky and created blues. We may have been doing negro spirituals and early gospel music for damn near a century or two before the blues was even created if we start the clock at the 1600's. What was learned on the plantation, through us, was pivotal to the creation of modern music and i dont shy away from it. Nor do i do it to our 400 plus year history. Which was glorious within itself. Men and women who were enslaved did incredible things. Its not about "starting your history with Slavery"



How is stating your cultural claim reduced to a dikk measuring contest. It has nothing to do with "winning"




And the same with reggae. But u rarely hear Aframs chest thumping on that. Djs period in that era learned everthing from Funk-disco DJ culture. Nikas are literally trying to speak caribbean influence into existence for their own nefarious motives




Extremely disingenuous take. Most see afram cultural leverage and try to undermine or leech off of it. Why are you caping and speaking for outsiders anyway lol


Not even wasting my time with this anymore. Pan africanism is predicated on neutering afram influence to make everyone happy. And alot of us are not standing for it

All African and European music "inflictions" came from African Americans!? Where the hell do you get this information?

What exactly was "learned on the plantation, through us" that made modern music? Humor me. Be more specific.

You absolutely should not shy away from the unique history of music developed by AFRICAN-American people from the plantation fields and beyond. Absolutely not. But why does that mean shying away--even denigrating--the wider history and technical beauty of African American music?

When slavery was going on in America, "Western music," as it existed with little influence yet from African music (and this can be disputed, but that's another story), was mostly long winded instrumental concertos imported from Europe, and besides that you had military/"revolutionary" march/band music based on European tradition, American "folk" music which was heavily based on imported Irish and Scottish folk music, and of course religious hymns and chants.

I won't get into the unique technicalities of "Western" music. It used some ideas that African Americans never adapted, such as rigid 3/4 or 2/4 time signatures very prominent in early American folk songs, but it used some ideas that African Americans did adapt into their own music. I encourage you to listen to some of this early music.

However, POLY-RHYTHMIC STRUCTURES, probably the single most important innovation of African music that we are just now even catching up with (Trap music does NOT get the credit it deserves for it's technical complexity compared to former Hip Hop production), call and response lead-chorus motifs, cross-pattern bar-by-bar repetition and syncopation (as opposed to Western Music which was structured around rigid melodic progressions and motifs), the very concept of "beats" as a passage of time in music rather than as a downbeat marker to carry the song, of Western musical tradition.

These are all technical concepts of music--just a few of MANY--that were foreign to the European, the white American, and imported from African slaves.

Work songs, spirituals, hymns, and communal plantation dance music were all based on African musical traditions the slaves retained from their passage, using musical conceptions developed in Africa, but in English and mixed with some surrounding influence.

Take the African call and response structures of the slave songs, mixed with the African tradition of holding, belting, and sustaining vocals, mixed with SOME influence of Western chants and hymns, and then you got Gospel.

Whites took the instruments that the slaves imported from Africa--took our own genius from us--forbid us from playing them, and would later manufacture their own and sell them back to us. They took various instruments we invented, gave it a "Western" aesthetic, called it a "banjo" and a "guitar" and a "violin" and then told us they invented it, so that brainwashed people like you can distance themselves from their ancestors, their brothers, and their homeland and believe that they have some special place home with the white man.

So even without instruments we brought our music to the plantation field using jugs, sticks, cans, and a variety of cheap or makeshift instruments (Think "jug bands"). We also brought with us our African tradition of complex interlocking poly-rhthmic motions, structured around repetitive measures, or "grooves," encouraging dance and celebration through the hardship. This was imported from Africa.

You combine the complex, African poly-rhythmic structures and other techniques of plantation music and combine it with Western songwriting tradition on the piano and you got ragtime. Probably the first authentic, recorded American musical form. American music instantly evolves from imported European concertos to joyous, rhythmically complex "American" music...except it was created by African-Americans using intellectual traditions imported from their ancestral homeland.

Take the rhythmic complexity of ragtime, combine with some influence of Western military march/band music and then Jazz was born in New Orleans.

The visible "AFRICAN" influence in AFRICAN-American music has not disappeared yet by the way. I hope you're following.

The Blues developed from gospel and work song tradition, both of which followed African musical traditions as I cited above, except played on the guitar, a Westernized African invention stolen from us, and implementing even more of African musical conceptions, including holding and bending vocals; bending strings, hammering on, sliding, and other techniques to mimic vocals using instruments, of African musical tradition, never conceived by whites; and repetitive rhythmic structures--of African tradition, not "Western."

We then took Western minor, major, and pentatonic scales, except added a flattened fifth. The magical "blue" notes that gives black music so much emotional complexity and character. This rhythmic movement derives from African (and Islamic) scales, combined with Western scales and is unique to the Blues and all of "Western" black music.

Jazz combined with Gospel gave us soul. Jazz combined with Blues gave us R&B. Followed by Rock & Roll. And the rest is history.

Needless to say, music of the rest of the diaspora--Reggae, Soca, Calypso, Salsa, Dancehall--retained all these African musical tradition with some Western influence as well.

For the record I played and studied music and Blues guitar at a young age for years. I have TREMENDOUS respect for African-American music, but at the same time I know it's roots. African-American music is African music, written in English, played with Western instruments, and structured entirely around African musical practices and traditions practiced for millennia. The musical complexities of all music throughout the diaspora traces directly back to the music of our homeland. That's why it's AFRICAN-American music. In fact it seems like as time goes on the African influence of modern music over the Western iifluence is becoming more apparent. It's so omnipresent in all of music today fake intellects like you can't even recognize it.

Pan-Africanism is based on neutering African American influence so everyone else can be happy? Seems more like your tired ego is predicated on diminishing your own intellectual history to feel better about yourself. What was "learned on the plantation" was already music of Africa. It is to be celebrated how far we have come--what we have passed down for generations through much struggle, to be so culturally dominant around the world to this day--not weaponized against one another.

Again, I'm not sure why you feel diminishing the entire intellectual history of AFRICAN-American music, as if it's some alien product of a newborn species, is the only way you can have a "cultural claim" on your own ancestral heritage. Everyone around the world recognizes and respects African American music and entertainers.

Do y'all even hate Afrobeat? I think it's pretty good, the old stuff and the recent stuff.

Ima go listen to some Parliament. A great AFRICAN-American band who made amazing music in America. Love them.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

All African and European music "inflictions" came from African Americans!? Where the hell do you get this information?

.

he's talking about genres of music in the afro-diaspora and the european-diaspora that trace their roots/inflections back to afram popular music.

 

[Supper]

Its one thing that you can go this hard just to deny a Jamaican-born songwriter and producer heavily "influenced" Philadelphia Soul music. Its one thing that you can be offended by the founding role Jamaican/Caribbean immigrants played in Hip Hop music and culture--an influence more prevelant to this day than ever before as Dancehall, Afrobeat, Soca, and Hip Hop producers are constantly exchanging musical ideas and production techniques.

I am not even arguing that a Jamaican invented Philadelphia Soul. Obviously its not a Caribbean musical form. But if we're not talking about cultural exchanges between the black diaspora and moving the goalpost to who was the "brainchild" of these genres and what was just a "product" of ideas that already exist then whats the point of this thread? Obviously these genres were conceived entirely from its country of origin with some surrounding influence. But all music of the diaspora is ultimately a product of African influence, music, and cultures dating centuries. Full fukking stop. Let me see you argue otherwise and attribute AA culture and music to whites.

But then again youre quick to align yourself and your culture away from other black "immigrants" and would rather feel closer in cultural exchange with fukking racist, white washed Japanese anime and video games. Black-Caribbean and African culture is "uncool" and "lame" but fukking cartoons and sci-fi bullshyt worshipping blonde haired, blue eyed heroes that dont even look Japanese themselves, while depicting us in crude stereotypes, if at all, is what you consider to be the greatest foreign influence on black American culture? More than the sounds and culture of Jamaica? Of Trinidad? Of Cuba? Puerto Rico? Nigeria and the rest of your brothers and sisters of our beautiful diaspora, to which we all owe Africa for our sound, originality, creativity, and cultural significance?

Amazing. Its almost as if your pride lives vicariously through Westernization. Just as corny ass anime is a white washed Westernized depiction of Japanese culture, you too seem to measure black cultures by Westernized influence.and popularization. Im not so insecure that I have to distance myself from other black people and stand with racist Japanese bullshyt to feel important. Black music will always be African music. Again, unless of course you wanna argue how "Western influence" makes African American music the best. Have at it and show us where your ideology is really coming from.

Thank God our ancestors got together and made great music with each other, and still continue to do to this day. Imagine what our music and culture today would be if we hated one another for no entire reason and looked to damn white washed Japanese anime and video games for cultural inspiration.

For the last time there's no caribbean sound system or djing culture that was formative to the evolution of hip hop. Hip Hop djing comes from urban disco djing. Rewinding the record, stopping the record, momentarily adding effects are all disco djing techniques. Hip hop basically inherited all of its dj techniques from disco aside from scratching which was also invented by an African-American. Breakbeats come from disco. Virtually of the early hip hop breaks and samples come from funk, disco, and soul. Nothing dancehall or reggae about it. The person(herc) that most of you attempt to attribute it to even admits that jamaican "sound systems" had nothing to do with it.

Jamaican sound systems actually come from AAs. Coxsone Dodd brought the soundsystem of AAs from the US south back to jamaica which laid the foundation of the jamaican "dee jay". And Count Matchuki brought "toasting" to jamaica by imitating AA jive talking djs at Dodds request.

African Americans were even dubbing records before Jamaicans 'invented' dub music.
https://www.thecoli.com/threads/dub...-it-was-birthed-in-the-usa-soul-scene.322801/

Furthermore you're ignorantly or deliberately misconstruing AAs being influenced by THEIR own african ancestors , that are canon to the AA ethnicity, which they do, with taking influence from modern day post transatlantic slave trade african and west indian foreigners, which they don't. Like, I said AAs by and large aren't in tune with or have any interest in the cultures of those places like they have with ours, and damn sure don't get influenced by the culture of some disparate immigrants trying to mimicking our urban culture to fit in, and holding resentment against AAs for it all the way till adulthood at the same time. Cultural retention vs cultural adoption.

And yeah, I said what I said. The only significant foreign influence in AA culture you could really point to is Japanese because of the influence of anime and video games, which especially appeal to the blerd sub culture of AAs. I'm not celebrating that. In fact I see it as result of AAs failing to fill a huge void in a niche demographic of alternative/nerdy oriented people in our community that don't exactly fit the street/hood nikka demographic that a large portion of AA pop culture is geared towards. AA nikkanerds need to become more steadfast in their AA identity and cut a lane for themselves and stop blindly following white western and asian trends and pop culture as the basis of their identity and start becoming creators, influencers, and competitors themselves.

 

[K.O.N.Y]

All African and European music "inflictions" came from African Americans!? Where the hell do you get this information?

What exactly was "learned on the plantation, through us" that made modern music? Humor me. Be more specific.

You absolutely should not shy away from the unique history of music developed by AFRICAN-American people from the plantation fields and beyond. Absolutely not. But why does that mean shying away--even denigrating--the wider history and technical beauty of African American music?

When slavery was going on in America, "Western music," as it existed with little influence yet from African music (and this can be disputed, but that's another story), was mostly long winded instrumental concertos imported from Europe, and besides that you had military/"revolutionary" march/band music based on European tradition, American "folk" music which was heavily based on imported Irish and Scottish folk music, and of course religious hymns and chants.

I won't get into the unique technicalities of "Western" music. It used some ideas that African Americans never adapted, such as rigid 3/4 or 2/4 time signatures very prominent in early American folk songs, but it used some ideas that African Americans did adapt into their own music. I encourage you to listen to some of this early music.

However, POLY-RHYTHMIC STRUCTURES, probably the single most important innovation of African music that we are just now even catching up with (Trap music does NOT get the credit it deserves for it's technical complexity compared to former Hip Hop production), call and response lead-chorus motifs, cross-pattern bar-by-bar repetition and syncopation (as opposed to Western Music which was structured around rigid melodic progressions and motifs), the very concept of "beats" as a passage of time in music rather than as a downbeat marker to carry the song, of Western musical tradition.

These are all technical concepts of music--just a few of MANY--that were foreign to the European, the white American, and imported from African slaves.

Work songs, spirituals, hymns, and communal plantation dance music were all based on African musical traditions the slaves retained from their passage, using musical conceptions developed in Africa, but in English and mixed with some surrounding influence.

Take the African call and response structures of the slave songs, mixed with the African tradition of holding, belting, and sustaining vocals, mixed with SOME influence of Western chants and hymns, and then you got Gospel.

Whites took the instruments that the slaves imported from Africa--took our own genius from us--forbid us from playing them, and would later manufacture their own and sell them back to us. They took various instruments we invented, gave it a "Western" aesthetic, called it a "banjo" and a "guitar" and a "violin" and then told us they invented it, so that brainwashed people like you can distance themselves from their ancestors, their brothers, and their homeland and believe that they have some special place home with the white man.

So even without instruments we brought our music to the plantation field using jugs, sticks, cans, and a variety of cheap or makeshift instruments (Think "jug bands"). We also brought with us our African tradition of complex interlocking poly-rhthmic motions, structured around repetitive measures, or "grooves," encouraging dance and celebration through the hardship. This was imported from Africa.

You combine the complex, African poly-rhythmic structures and other techniques of plantation music and combine it with Western songwriting tradition on the piano and you got ragtime. Probably the first authentic, recorded American musical form. American music instantly evolves from imported European concertos to joyous, rhythmically complex "American" music...except it was created by African-Americans using intellectual traditions imported from their ancestral homeland.

Take the rhythmic complexity of ragtime, combine with some influence of Western military march/band music and then Jazz was born in New Orleans.

The visible "AFRICAN" influence in AFRICAN-American music has not disappeared yet by the way. I hope you're following.

The Blues developed from gospel and work song tradition, both of which followed African musical traditions as I cited above, except played on the guitar, a Westernized African invention stolen from us, and implementing even more of African musical conceptions, including holding and bending vocals; bending strings, hammering on, sliding, and other techniques to mimic vocals using instruments, of African musical tradition, never conceived by whites; and repetitive rhythmic structures--of African tradition, not "Western."

We then took Western minor, major, and pentatonic scales, except added a flattened fifth. The magical "blue" notes that gives black music so much emotional complexity and character. This rhythmic movement derives from African (and Islamic) scales, combined with Western scales and is unique to the Blues and all of "Western" black music.

Jazz combined with Gospel gave us soul. Jazz combined with Blues gave us R&B. Followed by Rock & Roll. And the rest is history.

Needless to say, music of the rest of the diaspora--Reggae, Soca, Calypso, Salsa, Dancehall--retained all these African musical tradition with some Western influence as well.

For the record I played and studied music and Blues guitar at a young age for years. I have TREMENDOUS respect for African-American music, but at the same time I know it's roots. African-American music is African music, written in English, played with Western instruments, and structured entirely around African musical practices and traditions practiced for millennia. The musical complexities of all music throughout the diaspora traces directly back to the music of our homeland. That's why it's AFRICAN-American music. In fact it seems like as time goes on the African influence of modern music over the Western iifluence is becoming more apparent. It's so omnipresent in all of music today fake intellects like you can't even recognize it.

Pan-Africanism is based on neutering African American influence so everyone else can be happy? Seems more like your tired ego is predicated on diminishing your own intellectual history to feel better about yourself. What was "learned on the plantation" was already music of Africa. It is to be celebrated how far we have come--what we have passed down for generations through much struggle, to be so culturally dominant around the world to this day--not weaponized against one another.

Again, I'm not sure why you feel diminishing the entire intellectual history of AFRICAN-American music, as if it's some alien product of a newborn species, is the only way you can have a "cultural claim" on your own ancestral heritage. Everyone around the world recognizes and respects African American music and entertainers.

Do y'all even hate Afrobeat? I think it's pretty good, the old stuff and the recent stuff.

Ima go listen to some Parliament. A great AFRICAN-American band who made amazing music in America. Love them.

Bolded got me dying

breh u gon have to give me some time to respond. This post is mad long lol

Two years ago i would have been quick on it. I dont have it in me anymore

 

[K.O.N.Y]

For the last time there's no caribbean sound system or djing culture that was formative to the evolution of hip hop. Hip Hop djing comes from urban disco djing. Rewinding the record, stopping the record, momentarily adding effects are all disco djing techniques. Hip hop basically inherited all of its dj techniques from disco aside from scratching which was also invented by an African-American. Breakbeats come from disco. Virtually of the early hip hop breaks and samples come from funk, disco, and soul. Nothing dancehall or reggae about it. The person(herc) that most of you attempt to attribute it to even admits that jamaican "sound systems" had nothing to do with it.

Jamaican sound systems actually come from AAs. Coxsone Dodd brought the soundsystem of AAs from the US south back to jamaica which laid the foundation of the jamaican "dee jay". And Count Matchuki brought "toasting" to jamaica by imitating AA jive talking djs at Dodds request.

African Americans were even dubbing records before Jamaicans 'invented' dub music.
https://www.thecoli.com/threads/dub...-it-was-birthed-in-the-usa-soul-scene.322801/

Furthermore you're is ignorantly or deliberately misconstruing AAs being influenced by THEIR own african ancestors , that are canon to the AA ethnicity, which they do, with taking influence from modern day post transatlantic slave trade african and west indian foreigners, which they don't. Like, I said AAs by and large aren't in tune or have any interest in the cultures of those places like they have with ours, and damn sure don't get influenced by the culture of some disparate immigrants trying to mimicking our urban culture to fit in, and holding resentment against AAs for it all the way till adulthood at the same time. Cultural retention vs cultural adoption.

And yeah, I said what I said. The only significant foreign influence in AA culture you could really point to is Japanese because of the influence of anime and video games, which especially appeal to the blerd sub culture of AAs. I'm not celebrating that. In fact I see it as result of AAs failing to fill a huge void in a niche demographic of alternative/nerdy oriented people in our community that don't exactly fit the street/hood nikka demographic that a large portion of AA pop culture is geared towards. AA nikkanerds need to become more steadfast in their AA identity and cut a lane for themselves and stop blindly following white western and asian trends and pop culture as the basis of their identity and start becoming creators, influencers, and competitors themselves.

BRAVO

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Pan-Africanism is based on neutering African American influence so everyone else can be happy? .

.....he's talking about outsiders using pan-africanism as a shield when leeching off of afram pop culture through cultural appropriation but these same people will be up in arms at the first attempt at aframs doing some form of afro-atlantic/afro-fusion, Caribbean or African genre, that they most likely influenced, anyway.

 

[The Fade]

Well people keep saying AAs got no culture and we don’t retain our african ness



then come out and say “well call and answer is from Africa and the special Islamic scales..” .. that would mean that we do indeed retain our african ness


So which the fukk is it?

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Furthermore you're is ignorantly or deliberately misconstruing AAs being influenced by THEIR own african ancestors , that are canon to the AA ethnicity, which they do, with taking influence from modern day post transatlantic slave trade african and west indian foreigners, which they don't. Like, I said AAs by and large aren't in tune or have any interest in the cultures of those places like they have with ours, and damn sure don't get influenced by the culture of some disparate immigrants trying to mimicking our urban culture to fit in, and holding resentment against AAs for it all the way till adulthood at the same time. Cultural retention vs cultural adoption.

.

this...I've said before on here that Afram music/culture/creativity has always been from within, and never with outside(r) influences. Herc trying to play reggae to a crowd of pred, aframs is the perfect example of this. They hit Herc with the This is also why Aframs don't create all encompassing musical market GENRES where you pull from numerous cultures outside your own like, Afro-Fusion/Reggae-Fusion/Urbana Latino/KPOP or hybridized SINGLE sub genres like Reggaeton, South African House or Salsa.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

I would say modern afrobeat has dancehall rhythms but the vocalizations/harmonies/production style owe alot to R&B/Hiphop, even EDM (house music) (afrobeatz most direct antecedent was HipLife and Funky House) to a degree. See thread

to expound a bit on what I posted before

some of the styles that lead to/precurssor to afrobeats that comes out of Nigeria and Ghana

UK funky (sometimes known as UKF or funky[1]) is a genre of dance music from the United
Kingdom that is heavily influenced by soulful house, soca, tribal house, broken beat, grime and
UK garage.[1] Typically, UK funky blends beats, bass loops and synths with African and Latin
percussion in the dem bow rhythm and contemporary R&B-style vocals.
UK funky uses tempos of around 130bpm. Drum patterns vary between tracks, using either "4 to the
floor" or a syncopated style. The drum patterns commonly also include percussion playing African
inspired rhythms. Instrumentation varies widely, but drum machines and synthesizers are common.
There are similarities to garage in rhythmic, musical and vocal styles. UK funky is highly
influenced by the tribal, soulful and bassline house subgenres. Similar genres include Afrobeat,
broken beat, electro and garage
US house producers such as Masters At Work, Karizma (with "Twyst This"), Quentin Harris and
Dennis Ferrer (with a remix of Fish Go Deep's "The Cure and the Cause"; and with "Hey Hey") have
had an influence on UK funky.

example




^^UK Funky's precursors are in Deep/Tribal House and Broken Beat. Examples below


Karizma - Drumz Nightmare




Karizma - Twist This



Quentin Harris ft. Cordell McClary - Travelling (Vocal Mix)



We Are Lonely (Quentin Harris Vocal Mix)


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2013

You Too Can Learn How To Dance Azonto

Azonto is both a dance and a music genre. While it's totally acceptable to enjoy the
upbeat, Ghanaian house-like rhythms on their own, it's always more fun to be a participant than
a spectator. The dance is part-miming, part-seduction, and encourages competitiveness in a way
that it is reminiscent of voguing or the short-lived LA-based dance craze known as jerking.
The form integrates older drumming and dance moves from Ghana with cues from contemporary house
and hip-hop. It became a viral phenomenon in Ghana, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom beginning in
2011

You Too Can Learn How To Dance Azonto
you-do





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2013

It's Called Afrobeats And It's Taking Over London
Afrobeats (with an "s") is bringing the sounds of Ghana and Nigeria to British dancefloors.

What has come to be known as Afrobeats (note the "s") is an umbrella name for mostly
Ghanaian "hiplife" and Nigerian "Naija." Broadly, the sound draws on the rich legacy of highlife
and Afrobeat (à la Fela Kuti), contemporary American hip-hop and R&B production, a bit of
Jamaican dancehall swagger, and Britain's grimy take on house music.

It's Called Afrobeats And It's Taking Over London
over-london






February 11, 2015

Having produced Afrobeats for a while I wanted to push myself in different ways, to fuse
that African sound with EDM, or soul and make something that cuts across markets,” he says. “Big
songs in Nigeria – good songs – haven’t been big over here, because people can’t relate to them.
So when an African decides to make a song that people here can understand, then that’s a
different thing. They react to a song like ‘Confam It’ way more than they do to songs that are
more ‘African.’” Inspired by “Confam It”’s positive reception, Omeiza is moving forward,
planning to mix the aggression of trap with the traditional music of the Hausa people.
The thing that all producers agree on, is that no matter how far they may travel from the chart
hits Fuse ODG has delivered, they are all still making Afrobeats. There is no attempt to throw
up genre walls and pin the sound down to one tempo, one set of sound tools, or one rhythm
pattern. The prevailing attitude is that a slow winding R&B-influenced number can be just as
much an Afrobeats track as a hyped up four-to-the-floor pounder. In some ways, the term has
become a less problematic, African version of “urban” – it contains a huge diversity of sounds,
but, unlike “urban,” doesn’t serve to obscure the music’s origin

Red Bull Music Academy Daily


August 30, 2016
One Africa Music Fest: Showcasing the Rise of Afrobeats

In conversations with DJs and artists, you could feel those winds of change. When we met
young artists in Ghana in 2013, they were not all embracing the term “Afrobeats.” One rapper,
still holding to the hiplife label, said that Afrobeats was a term used more in the diaspora.
Not anymore. Today, like the term “Afropop” before it, Afrobeats has become a big tent. The nod
to Fela Kuti is noted, but Afrobeats is not a style per se, like Afrobeat. It simply means the
new sounds of Africa, part roots, part rap, part reggae/dancehall, part r&b. Crooning works as
well as a dancehall growl. It’s wide open. Whether the term lasts, time will tell.

Afropop Worldwide | One Africa Music Fest: Showcasing the Rise of Afrobeats


so I checked some of the newer stuff thats hot right now

R&B vocals with jazzy horns



R&B vocals + "tropical beat" + bluesy malian guitars



reggae lilt + an "afro" beat with jazzy horns



this could be a Khalil R&B song if not for the accent



has an "afro" beat with those house-techno synths and R&B vocals

 

[IllmaticDelta]

.......Afrobeats is usually talking about Nigeria and Ghana based acts but in South Africa, they're pretty much making music of the same Afro (a beat influenced from their country)-Fusion (hiphop, R&B, dancehall, techno-house) and it sometimes get's grouped with Afrobeats

Call Us by Our Name: Stop Using "Afrobeats"
Op-Ed: To retain ownership of our culture we must insist on labelling popular African music correctly

To name something is to claim ownership. And with the Western music industry's long tradition of appropriation, ownership of Africa's latest export is something Africans on the continent cannot risk losing.

Currently, "Afrobeats" is used as a catch-all term for all popular music emerging from the African continent.

The Afrobeats label was created in the late 2000s in an attempt to commoditize a burgeoning UK club scene among children of African immigrants—largely from countries like Nigeria and Ghana. As the internet age fueled connections between Africans on the continent and those in the diaspora, DJ's noticed a growing demand for West African pop music and filled this void with parties and radio shows dubbed "Afrobeats Nights." UK media having caught on to the music shifting nightlife among young Black Brits, started covering Nigerian stars like 2Face, D'Banj and P-Square, also describing their sound as "Afrobeats."

In an interview with South African rapper Cassper Nyovest, on New York radio show The Breakfast Club, D.J. Envy laments that people "don't know how big afrobeats is," prompting Nyovest to retort that he is a hip-hop act and doesn't make Afrobeats. The exchange though brief, is indicative of how African pop music since gaining traction in Western markets, has struggled to receive nuanced treatment from its media and music platforms.

Call Us by Our Name: Stop Using "Afrobeats"

I checked him out see what kind of style he was doing since he's considered himself a hiphop act instead of an afrobeats act

Cassper Nyovest feat Boskasie - Move For Me (Official Music Video)



..as you can see, he has all he same elements you hear in most afrobeats songs

Last fall, Major Lazer released an album titled Afrobeats (DJ mix), pulling together top artists from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and more. The album kicks off with three distinctly gqom tracks, a hypnotic percussion-heavy variant of house music produced in South Africa and closes with a collaboration from Nigerian-Ghanaian pop singer Mr Eazi and UK songstress RAYE.

Surely, the members of Major Lazer who have spent time touring Africa and working with African musicians, recognize the differences between these two musical styles. Yet Major Lazer falls prey to the same marketing forces that flatten a myriad of musical cultures with the same generic label. As a result, their primarily American fanbase will be introduced to gqom sounds under the label of Afrobeats—a disservice to a style of music with its own riveting history in the townships of Durban.

gqom is the South African style they were calling Afrobeats on the Black Panther OST

Gqom /ᶢǃʱòm/ (Igqomu)[pronunciation?] is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged in the early 2010s from Durban, South Africa.[1] It developed out of South African house music, kwaito techno.[2] Unlike other South African electronic music, gqom is typified by minimal, raw and repetitive sound with heavy bass beats but without the four-on-the-floor rhythm pattern.[1]