The Rise of Afrobeats, Through The Lens of Afroswing

Thumbing through your library of hood classics from rappers like Sho Shallow, Giggs, Ard Adz and Political Peak, you land on Mover and Timbo’s era-defining track "Ringtone". 

Produced by P Montana, Mover goes bar for bar until we arrive at Timbo's melodic hook, which was arguably the first time this combination of Afro sounds and gritty road rap was heard on wax.

Adjacent to this moment in time, Sneakbo was steadily riding his Jetski Wave' agenda, laying hard-hitting rhymes over dancehall riddims. Afroswing is loosely defined as the integration of Afrobeats with rap, grime and dancehall, mixing the sensual with the concrete and complex. 

Behind each of these artists were some mastermind producers who used this phrase as an opportunity to showcase the depth of their sound beyond grime and R&B, swinging from one genre to the next.

It’s important to note that Afroswing wouldn’t exist without the presence of Afrobeats in the UK, which has always been around—from African hall parties to university raves; although, at the time, bashment would usually be the main theme of the night.

Now that Afrobeats had seen the mainstream light, it only added more fuel to other artists, producers and DJs to continue establishing an unshakable foundation for African music in the UK. 

Afrobeats is a musical language intrinsically understood by children of the diaspora, but what happens when those codes are passed through the creative generator that is UK culture?