What Afrobeats can learn from the international decline of Dancehall

On Monday, 20th February 2023, American famous indie sensation Russ released a teaser of his upcoming Afrobeats single.

This quickly generated conversation about gatekeeping the genre and the consequences of the foreign creative exploitation; one being that foreign acts will soon dominate Afrobeats and quickly displace Nigerians as the main acts.

This argument is not far-fetched as foreign acts who are signed to major labels have access to unlimited resources and a bigger audience that will propel their music to the top. This will mean that foreign acts will begin dominating the Afrobeats chart and winning Afrobeats awards.

Glimpses of this can be seen from the recent revisionism in the western media that referred to Beyoncé as the Queen of Afrobeats.

Another predicted consequence of opening the door to foreign creative exploitation is that Afrobeats will soon be feverishly exploited with everyone trying to get a piece of the pie. This will lead to a gold rush that will inevitably culminate in a use and dump situation. The foreigners will grow their catalog, make good money, and jump off the trend once a new trending genre pops up. 

What we can learn from the international decline of Dancehall

While foreign creative exploitations appears impossible, there are steps the Nigerian music industry can take to navigate the situation and learn from Dancehall which once enjoyed international fame before nosediving for several reasons.

While preparing this article, I came across a couple of pieces about the evolution of Dancehall, its breakthrough into the international market and eventual decline.

One of the materials I read is the brilliant article written for Rolling Stone in 2018 by Elias Leight titled "Why isn't Jamaican Dancehall bigger in the US?"

I shall be borrowing some of the lessons in this article to provide some insight into how Afrobeats can stay competitive even with what's looking like an inevitable foreign creative exploitation. 

Creativity

In Leight's article, he interviewed a number of Dancehall legends including producers Tyshane Thompson and Jaxx both of whom stated that a lack of creativity has hurt Dancehall's growth in the US. They credit this to the mid-2000s rise of Dancehall legend Vybz Kartel, who dominated the genre and had other artists sounding like him and riding on his popularity. This eventually led to a drop in quality. 

Creativity appears not to be a problem in Afrobeats as there are several acts that have kept churning out quality hits while also being driven by the eco-system to stay competitive. 

At any rate, Afrobeats acts must continue to stay one step ahead of the curve and shape the sound so foreign acts will have to follow their lead. 

Branding

A piece written by Micheal Nattoo and published on DancehallMag touches on Dancehall artists masquerading as Hip Hop acts in a bid to break into the American market thereby losing their originality. This misbranding quickly blurred the line on what constituted a Dancehall star and the remaining elements of patois, violence, and sensuality paled in comparison to the westernized versions. 

Afrobeats stars have had it better than their Dancehall counterparts as the music has remained distinctive and has allowed the artists to carry a locally driven brand that can be marketed to the international audience.

However, Nigerian artists must ensure that as Afrobeats is reaching a wider international audience and foreign acts are beginning to get in on it, the key elements and the place from which it originates are highlighted. 

This will ensure that the sound doesn't get misclassified thereby placing Nigerian artists in a competitive space with pop stars and rappers in a market where they can't compete. Simply put, the distinctive benefits Afrobeats enjoy must not be lost. 

Local structure

In Leight's piece, Jaxx the producer highlighted the lack of parallel structure in Jamaica that can propel Dancehall to the rest of the world. Hence artists hoping to reach an International audience will have to sign with foreign labels. With these labels having the option to focus on foreign Dancehall artists, the Jamaicans who own the sound inevitably get little attention. 

Without building structures in Nigeria that can propel Afrobeats to an international audience, Nigerian artists will play second fiddle to foreign artists who will be benefiting from making Afrobeats while also being the focus of the majors

Conclusively, Afrobeats cannot be gatekept but it can be built on a solid foundation such that foreign creative exploitation won't lead to its untimely international diminution.