African music has had a lot of gains globally in recent times. Afrobeats, largely fronted by Nigerian artists, has been rising fast in the last decade. The phenomenon first took off in the United Kingdom within the Ghanaian and Nigerian communities, spreading across Europe; and has gradually trickled into the North America music space.

A lot of African artists have been working hard to justify our inclusion into the global music scene, with some artists going all out to collaborate with American stars. When Dbanj, through some association to Kanye West’s Good Music, released his smash hit ‘Oliver Twist’ it peaked at number nine on the UK Singles Chart.

Things started to look even better for African music, when some global music stars started to feature African acts on their projects, perhaps as a result of big global music corporations like Sony Music and Universal Music signing some African acts.

To that end, we saw Drake feature Wizkid on the Billboard topping and award-winning song, ‘One Dance’ which opened a new window of opportunity for African music to shine.  Wizkid has since had major collaborations with the likes of Chris Brown, Drake, Ty Dolla Sign, Major Lazer, Trey Songz and many others.

Davido’s ‘hit song, Fall’ also caught fire around the world, setting some records on global charts. In 2019, ‘Fall’ made it on the Billboard Top 100 R&B/Hip-Hop charts as well as the US Top 40 Urban Radio songs.

In 2017, Ed Sheeran took a bold step to collaborate with Fuse ODG and Ghanaian producer, Killbeat on a number of songs including ‘Bibia Be Ye Ye’ off his Grammy-winning album, ‘Divide’.  In fact, Ed Sheeran even sang in Twi on that record.  In 2019 Beyoncé curated an album for ‘The Lion King’ featuring African musicians and producers.

For African music to continue to grow around the world there is the need to make the music accessible and available to music lovers around the world and platforms such as Apple Music are playing a vital role in that.  Apple Music is doing more than just giving an opportunity for African artists to make money from their talent; a lot of efforts are also going on in promoting African music and artists to other territories.

Ameyaw Meets
Bringing African music to the world, one playlist at a time – Ebro Darden, Global Head of Editorial for R&B and Hip Hop at Apple Music

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Ameyaw Debrah
Published on May 3, 2020

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African music has had a lot of gains globally in recent times. Afrobeats, largely fronted by Nigerian artists, has been rising fast in the last decade. The phenomenon first took off in the United Kingdom within the Ghanaian and Nigerian communities, spreading across Europe; and has gradually trickled into the North America music space.

A lot of African artists have been working hard to justify our inclusion into the global music scene, with some artists going all out to collaborate with American stars. When Dbanj, through some association to Kanye West’s Good Music, released his smash hit ‘Oliver Twist’ it peaked at number nine on the UK Singles Chart.

Things started to look even better for African music, when some global music stars started to feature African acts on their projects, perhaps as a result of big global music corporations like Sony Music and Universal Music signing some African acts.

To that end, we saw Drake feature Wizkid on the Billboard topping and award-winning song, ‘One Dance’ which opened a new window of opportunity for African music to shine.  Wizkid has since had major collaborations with the likes of Chris Brown, Drake, Ty Dolla Sign, Major Lazer, Trey Songz and many others.

Davido’s ‘hit song, Fall’ also caught fire around the world, setting some records on global charts. In 2019, ‘Fall’ made it on the Billboard Top 100 R&B/Hip-Hop charts as well as the US Top 40 Urban Radio songs.

In 2017, Ed Sheeran took a bold step to collaborate with Fuse ODG and Ghanaian producer, Killbeat on a number of songs including ‘Bibia Be Ye Ye’ off his Grammy-winning album, ‘Divide’.  In fact, Ed Sheeran even sang in Twi on that record.  In 2019 Beyoncé curated an album for ‘The Lion King’ featuring African musicians and producers.

For African music to continue to grow around the world there is the need to make the music accessible and available to music lovers around the world and platforms such as Apple Music are playing a vital role in that.  Apple Music is doing more than just giving an opportunity for African artists to make money from their talent; a lot of efforts are also going on in promoting African music and artists to other territories.

I spoke to Ebro Darden, a veteran American hip-hop radio presenter, on these gains and how to take it even further among other things.  As Global Head of Editorial for R&B and Hip Hop for Apple Music and host of its global radio station, Beats 1, Ebro Darden brings the sounds of the streets of New York City to the rest of the world.

Speaking of his experiences from his few visits to Ghana, Ebro comments: “ I have good relations with Sarkodie, Stonebwoy, Kwasi Arthur and a host of artists from there. It’s a great scene. I have not spent a lot of time in the northern part like Tamale and Kumasi. But there is a lot of positive vibes in Ghana, a lot of support for local music, and a lot of opportunity for growth also!”