Did Young Paris 'Explain Afrobeats to White People' Or Did He Just Confuse Everyone?
What does Young Paris' definition of afrobeats say to you?
What is afrobeats, exactly?
The somewhat vague term, usually used to describe the pulsating popular sounds coming out of the continent from artists like Wizkid, Davido and Tiwa Savage—just to name a few, gets thrown around quite a bit in today's musical landscape.
In a short video for fashion social media platfrom,VFILES, French-Congolese singer Young Paris attempts to put an authoritative voice on the meaning of the genre. In a clip, which the artist captioned "explaining #afrobeats to white people 😂," Paris tells us what he thinks the term "afrobeats" encompasses:
"Afrobeats is our genre, and then, there's sub-genres like afro-pop, you have afro-jazz, you got sounds from Ghana, from Nigeria, East Africa, from South Africa," says Pairs. "We all have our distinctive sound that comes from our region. So afrobeats has a dancehall, kind of, pop, feel good, African kind of ambiance to it."
He goes on to assert his status as one of the genre's "big homies."
Check out the clip below:
Explaining #Afrobeats to White People 😂 @VFILES
A post shared by Young Paris (@youngparis) on
His comments are a fitting segue into the ongoing discussion around what gets to pass as afrobeats. While Young Paris' definition is quite wide-ranging, perhaps to others, afrobeats is a far more distinct and nuanced style of music.
We'd like to hear various perspectives on the matter, so we're asking you. Do you get Young Paris' point? Is afrobeats as he described, and is he one of the authorities on the matter? Is it something wholly different from what he states? Do we even really care? We're slightly confused so sound off in the comments and let us know.