Afrobeats lacks soul and lyricism – Fireboy

Popular singer, Adedamola Adefolahan, better known as Fireboy DML, has claimed that he breathed life into the Afrobeats genre.

The ‘Peru’ hit-maker stated that before his emergence Afrobeats was just “vibes” which lacked pure soul and lyricism.

Fireboy stated this while being interviewed on BET, where he explained that he created his own sub-genre of Afrobeats because he knew his sound was “different.”

He said; “The Afrobeats scene before I came in. It was built on vibes. But I realized that there was something lacking, and that was pure soul and lyricism in our music. That was what I brought into the game. That’s why I call it Afro-Life — it’s Afrobeats that has some depth to it.”

Fireboy said listening to artistes like Wande Coal, Tubaba, Celine Dion, Elton John and James Blunt, while growing up inspired the kind of music he makes.

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CorrectNG recalls that last year, Nigerian Grammy winner, Damini Ogulu professionally known as Burna Boy riled up social media with his negative comment about Afrobeats.

In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, the ‘Last Last’ hit-maker asserted that 90 percent of Afrobeat songs which is mostly domiciled in Nigeria“lack substance and real-life experience”.

Burna Boy said; Because of where I am from. The sh*t I have to go through to maneuver and just stay with my crown on my head. (It is harder for people that know you best to love you the most). Because they do not know you best. You just think they do.

When you start going around the world and you start seeing that there are actually motherf**kers that know me a lot than the people that share the same (not experience)… because 90 per cent of them [Nigerian musicians] have no real life experiences which is why most of Nigerian music or African music or afrobeats as people call it, is mostly about nothing, literally nothing.

It is why you hear most of Nigerian music or Afrobeats as people call it, is mostly about nothing. Literally nothing. There is no substance to it. Like nobody is talking about anything. It is just a great time. It is an amazing time. But at the end of the day, life is not an amazing time.

No matter how nice of a time you are having now or you are had at some point or you plan to have, you are still going to face life. Me speaking for myself, the artiste is the person who has good days, bad days, great days, and worst days.

So, for me, I feel like music should be the essence of the artiste. The artiste is a person who has good day, bad day, his great days and worst days. So, I’m dropping a project that should be a window for the fans to see those experiences.