Toppa Top 10: Ten Afrobeats Artists You Should Listen To Right Now If You Love Caribbean Music

Words by Leanne Fairweather and Jesse Serwer
Illustration by Ken Nwadiogbu

Africa is definitely the future. The continent is producing some of the best, most creative music worldwide right now, much of it under the banner of the burgeoning genre of Afrobeats. Until recently, Afrobeats was largely an African secret, but with recent developments like Drake remixing Wizkid and Davido signing to Sony Music, the new sound of Africa is beginning to filter through the broader music world.

One thing we’ve noticed about Afrobeats is how much it shares in common with today’s Caribbean music. This, of course, makes perfect sense considering the African roots of just about all Caribbean sounds, but with many of today’s African artists taking inspiration from reggae, dancehall and even soca, and Caribbean artists like Busy Signal and Machel Montano doing the reverse, the music of the two regions is blending in new ways, with reverberations heard back and forth across the Atlantic. It’s a cross-cultural exchange we recently highlighted on Afro Soca, the first installment of our new monthly mix series.

As much as we ride for Caribbean music, some of our favorite music right now is coming from Africa, from the Ghanaian dancehall of Stonebwoy B to the Naija pop coming from producers Legendury Beatz.

Here’s a look at 10 African artists you should be listening to right now if you love Caribbean music.

10. Yemi Alade

Nigeria’s afropop princess Yemi Alade first came to fame winning the Peak Talent Show (a forerunner to the current Nigeria’s Got Talent TV series) in 2009, and is best known for her entertaining video and single “Johnny,” which achieved chart success across West Africa as well as in South Africa, and in the UK. Crediting dancehall as a major influence in her musical style, she calls out “Mr. Lova Man, Shabba” on “Looking at Me,” a bonus track from her 2014 debut album, King of Queens.

9. Runtown

Of the many dancehall-inspired singles out of West Africa in the last few years, “Bend Down Pause” by Nigeria’s Runtown has been one of the most widely embraced on this side of the world. The single, recently remixed for Trinidad Carnival by Walshy Fire and KickRaux with a feature from Machel Montano, makes a seamless addition to dancehall and soca sets with its instructional lyrics and general Caribbean-style flow. The video for the song, which was shot in L.A., even features Caribbean dancers like Belize’s Betty Rox and Jamaica’s Crazy Hype. Runtown previously collaborated with Laza Morgan on 2012’s “High On You” however, Caribbean sounds are just one part of his repertoire, as his hip-hop and R&B-indebted Ghetto University album attests.

8. Stonebwoy B

Listening to Stonewboy Burniton — Stonebwoy B for short — you might initially mistake him for a Jamaican. Like many of the other dancehall specialists in Ghana, he accents his lyrics with ‘nuff Jamaican patois— not exactly a stretch, of course, considering the dialect’s roots in West Africa. After finding considerable success at home and even winning the Best International Act honors at last year’s BET Awards, Stonebwoy’s been inching his way into the Caribbean market with some heavyweight collaborations, including the 2016 Carnival single “Block the Road” with Fay-Ann Lyons, and “Talk To Me” featuring Kranium.

7. Patoranking

Like many of the artists on this list, recent VP Records signee Patoranking moves easily between Jamaican-inspired reggae and dancehall. and a more typically African sound. While “My Woman, My Everything,” his 2015 single with singer Wande Coal, fits neatly into just about any Afrobeats set, “Daniella Whine” is essentially a tribute to ‘90s dancehall, straight down to its video’s dances and fashions. It will be interesting to see how his style develops now that he’s in the VP system.

6. Sarkodie

Another Ghanaian artist with an ear towards Jamaica, Sarkodie is probably best known internationally for setting off the Azonto dance craze with his 2011 single “U Go Kill Me.” As listeners including Busy Signal —who remade the song as “Same Way” in 2013— noted at the time, the beat was basically a dancehall riddim, and a really progressive one at that — an early hint that Afrobeats production was catching up to, if not surpassing, production coming out of Jamaica. More recently, Sarkodie had an Africa-wide hit with “Adonai” (featuring now-deceased Ghanaian artist Castro) and collaborated with Miami rapper Ace Hood on the hip-hop track “New Guy.”

5. P-Square

Composed of brothers Peter and Paul Okoye, P-Square are a Nigerian duo signed to Akon’s Konvict Music. With influences that span from Fela Kuti to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, the two present their culture in a unique way, bringing an eclectic and off-the-wall style to their performances — a presentation that has won them numerous awards and nominations. Their popular dance track “Personally’’ later inspired several dancehall covers, most notably Busy Signal’s “Professionally.” The business-savvy brothers now own neighboring homes in Atlanta.

4. Davido

The son of billionaire Nigerian industrialist Deji Adeleke, Davido was actually born in Atlanta, in 1992. The co-owner of label HKN Music with elder brother Adewale Adeleke, he now resides between the U.S. and Nigeria, where he is one of the country’s most recognizable and popular artists. In just a few short years, Davido has collected countless hits, from 2011’s “Dami Duro” to 2013’s “Skelewu” and his recent collaboration with rapper Meek Mill, “Fans Mi”. The Nigerian talent, who recently appeared on the cover of The Fader magazine and was named an artist to watch at this year’s South by Southwest by Rolling Stone, signed to Sony Music in January, so expect more exposure for Davido and HKN Music in 2016.

3. Wizkid

With the possible exception of Davido, Wizkid is Nigeria’s most visible and lauded pop star right now. Though his style is less noticeably Caribbean-inspired than other artists on this list, his music at times recalls that of Popcaan, with whom he shares a mixture of honest vulnerability and youthful exuberance. Already a huge star across Africa, Wizkid gained one of the most valuable co-signs in music last year when Drake issued a remix of the sublime “Ojuelegba,” also featuring Nigerian-British rapper Skepta. With that endorsement in his pocket — along with collaborations with Major Lazer (he’s on Peace is the Mission bonus track “Boom”) and Rihanna (for whom he’s recently written) — you can bet Wizkid’s name will be ringing a lot more bells in North America and Caribbean from now on.

2. Burna Boy

From dance-pop club bangers like “Tonight” to the spacey, introspective “Soke,” Lagos’ Burna Boy moves across the map, musically, but the root of his sound, as he’s often acknowledged in interviews, is dancehall. That inspiration is front and center on 2014’s “Don Gorgon,” which references dancehall classics like Shabba’s “Ting-a-Ling,” Johnny Osbourne’s “Budy Bye” and Super Cat and Heavy D’s “Dem No Worry We.” Despite his considerable crossover appeal and popularity at home, North American and Caribbean audiences have been slow to catch on to Burna Boy. Until they inevitably do, he’ll just have to be West Africa’s secret.

1. Timaya

Nigeria’s Timaya has a knack for making songs in the sweet spot between hip-hop, Afrobeats, soca and dancehall. A major player in Nigeria for years, his international stock has risen recently thanks to “Shake Your Bum Bum” and “Sanko,” singles from 2013 and 2014, respectively. “Bum Bum” was remixed by both Sean Paul and Machel Montano, leading to radio and party play across the Caribbean and the Diaspora, while “Sanko” enjoyed similar success a year later, leading to an appearance at Montano’s Machel Monday concert during the 2015 Trinidad Carnival season — the first live appearance in Trinidad by an Afrobeats artist — as well as an official remix from Destra. Few songs embody the back-and-forth conversation happening between Africa and the Caribbean better than “Sanko,” the video for which brilliantly mixes and matches Nigerian and Jamaican dance styles.