Seun Kuti Stirs Storm: Why Afrobeats Doesn’t Qualify As A Genre

Singer Seun Kuti has shared his perspective on how Afrobeats should be viewed within the global music scene.

Speaking in an interview with The Beat FM, Lagos, the Grammy-nominated artiste argued that Afrobeats is not a genre, but rather a label used to broadly categorise music coming out of Africa.

Kuti explained that many artistes under the Afrobeats umbrella constantly switch styles — from dancehall to blues, Nigerian pop, or even amapiano — depending on trends, which shows it does not function like a defined genre.

He insisted that Afrobeats is best understood as a tag for African music, similar to how amapiano is now the dominant trend carrying its own label.

“I think Afrobeats is more of a title than a genre,” Kuti said. “Amapiano is like the new Afrobeats — it’s the new title. Afrobeats is just a generalisation, a name to identify music from Africa. Even the so-called gatekeepers don’t treat it like a genre. Artists under Afrobeats are eclectic — one day they’re doing dancehall, the next blues, then Nigerian pop or amapiano. That’s why I believe it’s just a title, not a genre.”