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Ever since we adopted the culture of releasing music on Fridays, we’ve been blessed with good releases from upcoming acts and superstars alike every week. Some weeks, we have so much food on our plate that we consume new music till Sunday. Afrobeats to the world has served us some good cultural adaptations that have had a positive effect on our music and it’s releases.
Every week brings a new perspective to our music. We have our superstars dropping albums every other week and our upcoming acts putting out work to convince us they are worth a shot. This week however has been one of the most underwhelming weeks in terms of the level of superstars dropping music and the quality of music being put out.
We properly adopted the New Music Friday culture as an industry in the year 2020, and it has been a part of us ever since. Popular A&R and music executive Tolu Daniels was one of those at the forefront of the movement, and his new music Friday playlist is currently 242 weeks old.
The culture started as a means to keep tabs on releases during the lockdown, and we joined the rest of the world in releasing music on Fridays. Now we see artists releasing music on Wednesdays and Thursdays so they can be at the top of the charts when Friday comes.
We had Niniola drop her Press Play Album to celebrate 10 years in the Industry. Dj Vpyst dropped a song wit Joeboy and Ayanfe. We saw Reminisce and Badboytimz team up to drop Up As Fuck, Iyanya and Tekno dropping Shagara, and releases from Kold Af, Noon Dave ZerryDL amongst others.
Majority of our superstars were absent from the New Music Friday releases and we didn’t have a lot of Albums released. Matter of fact, it seems only Niniola dropped an album, and that was to celebrate a landmark. We had two EPs from the entire industry with Kold AF and Noon Dave and only about two or three B list artists put out collaborations, none with an official single.
Over time we have witnessed a growing disconnect between the local fanbase and the artists due to the fact that the artists now pander to and cater for the international media and fanbase. They structure their releases to cater for the Western eco-system. Everyone now focuses on releasing in the Grammy eligibility window. This used to affect the sound before, now it’s affecting the music.
This development makes one spend time wondering bout the power and effect of the foreign investors funding and sponsoring our music. How much of the shots do they call now? Is the sacrifice of the local fanbase worth it?
The state of the country continues to damage Afrobeats. Nigerians do not have the financial purchasing power to fund Afrobeats so it is almost impossible to blame the artists for seeking validation and funding from the Western world. We can not empower our own, we can not pay our superstars.
The music Afrobeats put out as a genre today Friday seems like a struggle. Bar a few good releases, there was nothing spectacular to write home about. I won’t be writing home today, it seems. I’d be writing to you, the listener, telling you how hurt i am, and asking you where we go from here.
