DJ Yo recorded a stripped down version of the song that found its way onto TikTok, the social network where people post short videos, often set to music.

The song’s more recent surge began not with one of Warner’s remixes, but thanks to DJ Yo, a relatively unknown artist from Mauritius. Musicians from Tanzania, France, Germany and South Africa all made their own versions. The song gained a following in the Middle East and North Africa thanks to a remix by popular Moroccan DJ ElGrandeToto. Many of the biggest musicians from Africa are AfroBeats acts, including Wizkid, who was featured on Drake’s 2016 smash “One Dance,” which introduced a whole new generation of young listeners to the genre.ĬKay first released “Love, Nwantiti” in late 2019 and considered the song one of his bigger hits based on its performance both in Nigeria and abroad. Nigeria has been one of the most fertile countries for new music in the past several years, and Lagos is considered the home of AfroBeats, a genre that marries percussion-heavy beats with autotuned singing and rapping. Born in northwestern Nigeria, CKay later moved to Lagos, the country’s largest city. Warner Music Group first discovered CKay through its partnership with Chocolate City, one of Nigeria’s leading record labels. To ensure the music industry sustains its interest in Africa, Ndambuki, a lawyer and musician with the all-girl group Tatuu, is working with governments to create more copyright protections and pushing for more transparent data.

“Before, you wouldn’t hear major artists from Africa recognized.” “If you look at the past year, it’s been very positive in terms of the reception of African music,” said Angela Ndambuki, the regional director of sub-Saharan Africa for the IFPI. In 2020, Nigerian artists Wizkid and Burna Boy both won awards at the Grammys. Last year, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a group representing many of these companies, established its first outpost in sub-Saharan Africa. Sony Music Entertainment set up shop in Johannesburg. Recently, Universal Music Group opened up an office in Nigeria and created an African offshoot of the famous hip-hop label Def Jam. “As you see the cost of data and streaming going down, you see more and more Africans benefitting from a big push for music,” said Phiona Okumu, Spotify’s head of music for sub-Saharan Africa. “Streaming is relatively new for our continent, but the rate at which it’s growing is faster than when streaming was first invented.”Īs a result, the same music companies that once ignored Africa are now fiercely competing to sign acts there.

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