NATIVE Exclusive: Obi Asika & the currency of Afrobeats culture
on his vision for telling stories
At a young age, Obi Asika knew the raw potential of culture. He was raised in South Eastern cities and both his parents were intellectuals with anthropological interests. He read widely, predominantly Black Literature, which expanded his worldview of Black peoples, especially in regards to art.
“I was born into culture,” the 54-year-old cultural entrepreneur said to the NATIVE a week ago, at his Lagos office, a warm space packed with books, awards, and pictures. “By ten, I was well versed in the lexicon of black revolutionaries and the black power movement in America, from books, movies and documentaries. My late mother was from Egbu, a town in Owerri, and known in the family as Egbu London. When her father-my grandfather-passed the Peacocks International Band released a tribute album named for him, ‘Ejiogu’, their biggest hit was ‘Eddie Quansa’. I love Bongo Highlife till today, and that includes Oriental Brothers, Olariche and in the more modern era SaroWiwa, Ababana, and I also recorded tribute albums for both my parents when they passed with Bongo Highlife all stars.”
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Obi Asika has been involved in cultural affairs since teens. He had moved to the United Kingdom where he did prep and public school, and would later attend college at the prestigious Eton College. He returned to Nigeria for Law school and was working as a legal assistant when he set up a nightclub, Enter The Dragon, and established the legendary Storm Records in later part of the ’90s. Shortly after he established Enter The Dragon, two rappers performed at the venue, in foreign accents. Asika thought they could create more relatable music, and suggested they relay their local experiences in their music. Those rappers became Junior and Pretty, who were signed to his label as they conquered Nigeria and shifted its soundscape. In later years, Storm Records was also home to culturally-significant acts like Naeto C, Sasha, YQ, Jazzman Olofin, Ikechukwu, Darey Art Alade and Sauce Kid.
“Storm had a good run. We didn’t really make money, but we built a brand, we built a movement. I’m very satisfied with how things went,” he says, mentioning some figures who were part of the movement: Asa Asika, Bizzle Osikoya, Clarence Peters, DJ Tee, Tola Odunsi aka Bobby Boulders. “I count them as Storm,” he says. “People don’t understand why, but they know why. We came into this thing with a family approach, and we pushed like family and we won a lot together, we lost a lot together, but we maintained the relationships. And today, I sit here and I’m happy, I’m blessed because imagine when all your people are doing incredible things. What’s there not to be happy about?”
Asika’s career is unarguably feathered with accomplishments, from producing the first-ever Big Brother to starring as a guest judge on Nigerian Idol, however his latest creation might just be his most engrossing yet. ‘Journey of the Beats’ has been hailed as the best-rounded effort to tell the story of Nigerian Pop through its different eras. Asika has been following the sound of Afropop for several years, led by the renowned historian Ed Keazor and veteran music journalist Sesan Adeniji. That quest took them to the sonic exchange that began when Africans were taken across the Atlantic as slaves, to the music of rebellion they created wherever they found themselves. In Africa, genres were still being moulded and parsed through our unique experiences.
‘Journey of the Beats’ tells these stories through the perspective of those who lived the eras. It’s quite fortunate that many influential figures of the modern Afrobeats era are alive and still with us, but for previous eras, Asika dipped into the ebbs of history: black-and-white clips of instrumental moments paired with live performances from traditionally-equipped musicians. All this heightens the production’s quality—evidence of a masterful hand.
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“There’s so many elements in our music, you can’t lay them in any one place,” he tells me now. The Black pride behind Hip-Hop’s formation was instrumental for the early purveyors of Afrobeats, he says, and the call-and-response in traditional African practices went the other way, adapted into the techniques of Rap and MCing. He continues, “You can’t lay them in the East or the West, North, or South. And you certainly can’t lay them in just Nigeria ‘cos there’s elements from South Africa, from Congo, from Ghana, from America, from the UK, from everywhere, right? So we experience everything, but we put our touch in it, so you know it’s Nigerian”.
He recalls previous years when it wasn’t as cool to be African. The diaspora was brimming with international citizens, but entering the room looking African was met with apprehension and maybe tolerance. “We weren’t the happening guys,” he admits. “We might have thought we were, but it wasn’t the generality.”
The ubiquity of modern Afropop has changed that status, and it’s taken a great number of industry players to do so. Even as ‘Journey of the Beats’ recognises the current crop of influencers, its educational appeal is supplied by the attention to history. More than highlighting popular musicians like Fela Kuti and King Sunny Ade, the iterations of the genre’s sound is explored from infancy to maturity. “We also talk about technology that makes the sound,” he says about the documentary’s encompassing vision. “Now that technology has changed, going from the original ogene and African instruments through to the early recording process to digital, what we’ve noticed is that the things that cause innovation are always about the approach of the person who’s doing it.”
Whenever Afrobeats is being discussed, the name of Fela Kuti is never far away. The young Kuti was from an upper-middle class family, sent to London to study medicine but rebelled and chose music instead, becoming classically trained, unlike many musicians of the era. In addition to that mastery, the church—his father was an Anglican minister who also composed music—was his other major influence.
Back in Nigeria Fela’s played Highlife with the Koola Lobitos, but at the start of the seventies, he took the US trip that changed him forever. There he met and befriended the Black Panther member Sandra Isidore who introduced him to Malcolm X and the life-long struggle for Black rights in America. That, Mr. Asika says, was an important exchange between Black people from different parts of the world. He believes the average Nigerian lacks a sense of self, due to the limited tensions he’s encountered racially. That awareness was the heat of Fela’s gospel, which instantly stood out for its militancy.
Sonically, he united many cultures which were otherwise separated sonically and linguistically. James Brown is a well-documented influence, while Fela also adapted the hymnal chants of Abeokuta’s church music, the negro spirituals of Soul, and the big band sound of Jazz. In the seventies, the funk of Sierra Leone-born Geraldo Pino made a lasting impression on Fela leading him to revamp his sound. What he arrived at blended aspects of all these sounds into the irreverent whole we have ascribed as the Afrobeats’ forebear.
“All our legends through the ages were disruptive at their own times and all played a role,” Asika shared via WhatsApp some weeks before we were scheduled to meet for his interview. In the documentary, a wide selection of Fela’s forebears and contemporaries were spotlighted in relation to their importance. The latter recognised the genius of Highlife’s Giants—the likes of Rex Lawson, Osita Osadebe, Oliver De Coque, and others who galvanised the Eastern music scene after the Nigeria-Biafra war.
An episode was dedicated to “unsung heroes” who also had periods of dominance and innovated with the sound. Another episode was for the departed icons, including Sound Sultan, Dr. Frabz and OJB Jezreel, the legendary producer and songwriter responsible for crafting the sound which carried the mythos of 2Face Idibia in his seminal pair of albums, ‘Face To Face’ (2004) and ‘Grass To Grace’ (2006). To bring these many eras into ‘Journey of the Beats,’ the writer’s room was heavily invested on. These experienced personalities worked to carve out a path for Afrobeats’ many stories to come into light, not neglecting the diasporic connection. Among the writers was Jide Taiwo, a veteran journalist and the author of ‘History Made: The Most Important Nigerian Songs Since 1999’.
A varied selection of presenters also serves to bring colour to the story’s telling. In the last episode, Mr. Asika himself takes viewers through a run-down of the documentary’s episodes and the propellers for its ongoing movement. “I just felt it was a good way to take people into the story,” he says of the choice. “And to also bring the generations into it—because the presenters are across different generations, nobody’s like the same age or does the same thing, depending on what the episode’s really about. So that’s how we tried to curate it, and I felt we all did quite well”.
An afternoon like that isn’t new to Obi Asika. For over a decade, journalists and production crews have found their way to him, seeking to unearth gems from his many years of cultural service. However, with his own long-lived interest in documentation and his position as a major player, it was only a matter of time before he executive produced a documentary of his own making.
He pitched the show to Showmax a year ago, and he thought it would start in October, but things didn’t kick-off until December when the project was green-lit. Before then though, the core members of the production team were racing against time working with what they had. Production started earlier this year, and the series began running only some months back.
Innovation has been the sounding alarm of Asika, right from the very beginning. Asika reckons that the next thing for Nigerian music is organising country-wide shows regularly. He’d earlier spoken about how Nigerians use to “pose” for celebrities, eager to show they were humans just like everyone else. Now, it’s the opposite, and for the better he thinks. But then what happens when the home audience of this movement can’t even see their biggest stars? How does it influence credibility? “When you tell me you’ve got a Wizkid forty city tour in Nigeria, capacity twenty thousand—now we’re talking,” he says, adjusting slightly in his seat. “If you’re sitting in Kaduna, you’ve never seen Burna Boy. Isn’t that messed up? The biggest artist in your country and you can’t see them. Think about it, if you’re sitting in Enugu when was the last time the music came through? And it’s not the artists per-se, but it’s the promoters.”
“So it’s those promoters gonna put on the national tours for one of these artists to do twenty stadiums, and ten arenas, and sell a million tickets,” he says, explaining further the importance of the promoter alongside a cooperative ecosystem, not excluding the government’s important role of providing a fertile society for prospective investors. In this ideal environment, “Everybody makes money—the artists make money, the stadiums make money, the merchandises make money, the concessioners make money, and the consumer goes home happy because, hey, you paid for an experience and you got it.”
Obi Asika is not done with stories, he affirms. He’s very open in his perspective, one which is enriched by how much can be achieved using the soft power of entertainment. His father walked a similar path; in the aftermath of the Civil War he utilised his government networks to promote several cultural activities in the East, including the founding of Enugu Rangers, a football club with great social significance. His late mother played in Western-styled bands, and it struck him to see how strongly people respond to creativity.
“There are many stories I wanna tell, this is just the music one,” he says near the end of our conversation. “I wanna do football, I wanna do Nollywood, do technology—there’s a bunch of stories revolving around a bunch of things, and I don’t want to do just documentaries. There’s dramas, there’s sit-coms, originals, biopics. I wanna do Zik’s story. That one has probably been in my head forever; the story of the first President of Nigeria. His story is a superhero story, but we have to tell it the right way so it can connect. When you talk about history, to me, history is how you tell it. If you think of history as some old people in an old piece of paper, of course it’s boring. But if you think about history as young people at the time when it happened, then you understand why it’s hot”.
ICYMI: IN CONVERSATION WITH THE JIDE TAIWO, A STORYTELLER INTENT ON IMMORTALISING NIGERIAN MUSIC
Shekhinah Returns With Surprise Album, ‘Less Trouble’
The South African R&B star is at her most assertive on her first album in four years.
South African R&B and Pop singer Shekhinah has released a new surprise album titled ‘Less Trouble.’ The Durban star, who had been quiet for most of the year, took to social media shortly before midnight to share the new album’s cover, synopsis, and tracklist, simply stating, ‘If you’re seeing this my album LESS TROUBLE is out now at Midnight,’ in an Instagram caption.
The soulful singer first began teasing ‘Less Trouble,’ her first album in over four years, about a year ago when she released its lead single “Risk,” a bouncy Afropop-inspired collab with Ghanaian star MOLIY. A few months after the release of “Risk,” she put out “Steady,” a dreamy pop number that suggested that something bigger was on the horizon. But then it was largely radio silence about a project until its surprise arrival at midnight.
If 2021’s ‘Trouble In Paradise’ represented a coming-of-age for Shekhinah, subsisting some of the dreamy, youthful exuberance of her debut album for more measured musings on themes like heartbreak and grief, ‘Less Trouble’ finds her at her most assertive, writing and singing with the acuity of someone who is grown, decisive and discerning. The delicate opener “Break Up Season” sets the tone for the rest of the album as she shows little tolerance for shady behaviour and toxic patterns.
Other standout cuts on the album like “Bare Minimum,” a sombre collab with fellow South African award-winning singer lordkez, the ethereal, in-your-face interlude “New Casanova,” and the percussive “What Are We,” where Shekhinah contemplates the nature of a relationship but ultimately demands all or nothing, all drive home a part of the album’s synopsis, which reads ‘A BOOK ON MORE HEARTBREAK BUT LESS HEARTACHE.’
Shekhinah invites a couple of new collaborators on ‘Less Trouble,’ featuring the aforementioned MOLIY and lordkez as well as multi-instrumentalist Mars Baby and Young Stunna across the album’s 11 tracks. Mpilo Shabangu handled the majority of the album’s production, while other producers like Michael Morare, her longtime collaborator, Mthintheki Mzizi, and Vuyo also contributed to the album.
Listen to ‘Less Trouble’ here.
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The NATIVE’s First Impressions Of Amaarae’s ‘Black Star’
‘Black Star’ marks another evolutionary arc for Amaarae, and The NATIVE team offer our thoughts after a...
Change has always been a constant theme in any discussion about the career of Ghanaian-American star, Amaarae. Since she emerged as a singular voice in the late 2010s, she has evolved from a sirenic Afropop-adjacent singer into a Punk-Pop firestarter with minimal fuss. ‘Fountain Baby,’ her 2023 sophomore album, was a sweeping departure from the lilting melodies and shapeshifing cadences of the hypnotic ‘The Angel You Don’t Know,’ emphasizing her commitment to charting new courses with her music.
In the lead-up to her new album, ‘Black Star,’ she has wholly embraced a Pop aesthetic and sheen that was reflected on the album’s promotional singles, “S.M.O.” and “Girlie-Pop!.” Now that the album has arrived, the singer has advised listeners not to go in expecting a continuation of the soundscape on ‘Fountain Baby.’ As keen followers of Amaarae’s career from its start, we are sure that ‘Black Star’ marks another evolutionary arc for her, and we offer our thoughts after a few listens.
WHAT WERE YOUR EXPECTATIONS OF AMAARAE GOING INTO THIS ALBUM?
Kemnachi: I had zero doubts that she would impress me again. Amaarae always comes correct. She is audacious with her choices, taking creative risks most artists would not dare to imagine, and somehow rendering them seamless, deliberate, and effortless. Her music has a way of enveloping me: it’s fluid, slightly dangerous, and yet irresistibly sensual. Every project feels like an immersive world she has curated down to the finest detail. With ‘Black Star,’ I knew it was not going to be a mere collection of songs but another meticulously constructed realm.
Bamise: I expected something fun, genre-bending, and sonically diverse in the fashion that Amaarae’s music typically is. I may have taken the album title a bit too literally, though, because listening made me realise I had an eye out for some Pan-African statements or something to spark discourse on African identity, but I didn’t quite catch any of that.
Boluwatife: Amaarae has largely delivered throughout her career, so I knew she was going to come correct again. She’s one of those forward-thinking artists who take the kind of risks most others wouldn’t, but she always manages to make it work. She’s proven to be a musical omnivore who constantly meshes her wide-ranging influences into something new, fluid, icy, and more often than not, sensual. I knew ‘Black Star’ wasn’t going to be any different.
WHAT SONGS STOOD OUT ON THE FIRST LISTEN?
Wale: I liked “Girlie-Pop!.” I feel like it captures Amaarae’s vision of pushing Afropop into the future. She’s also really grown comfortable with music and lyricism and will not dumb down her message for anybody. The instrumental for “Girlie-Pop!” is also a wonder; it’s so dense, but there are pockets for Amaarae to be emotive about her feelings. Top song!
Daniel Akins: I need to hear “B2B” at the next rave I’m at. Amaarae is in her Dance era, and I’m here for it. Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2” with PinkPantheress is the collaboration I knew I needed, and I’m glad they finally linked up. It’s a clear standout on the project; their ethereal style complements each other.
Shina: “B2B” was the one that did it for me. That is my favourite track on the project. The number of times I ran it back was unhealthy for a first listen. It was also really fun to catch the Don Toliver “Best You Had” sample. I need to hear this outside!
HOW WELL YOU THINK THE GUEST APPEARANCES ENHANCED THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE?
Israel: The guest features on Black Star aren’t mere flexes. They’re strategic, theatrical, and sometimes emotionally resonant. They enhance, yes, but they do so on Amaarae’s terms. A standout for me was PinkPantheress on “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2.” The tradeoff is that a few songs feel like dazzling cameos rather than an integrated conversation, yet overall they enhance the album’s drama, texture, and bravado with precision.
Daniel Banjoko: Everyone showed up and delivered, no weak links here. Instead of just guest spots, they felt like vital pieces of a bigger puzzle. Charlie Wilson on “Dream Scenario” nailed his part especially, making the track sound exactly like its name promises.
Moore: The guest appearances on ‘Black Star’ feel very intentional; each one enhances the album’s world without overshadowing Amaarae’s vision. PinkPantheress’s signature airy delivery meshes with Amaarae’s experimental pop sound. Naomi Campbell’s commanding voice on “ms60” is an unexpected but powerful addition, adding drama to the track. Each feature feels carefully chosen.
WHAT SONG IS THE BIGGEST SKIP?
Bamise: Not to be a party pooper, but I don’t get the PinkPantheress collab, “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2.” It feels like a PinkPantheress song with less pop in it, and just borrows the title of the iconic Soulja Boy song but has no other similarities. It’s between that and “ms60.” For me, the chorus of that sounds like something I’ve heard from Amaarae before, and I doubt its absence would have diminished the album.
Shina: I feel like biggest skip is a strong word for a solid project, but if I have to pick a song to skip, it’ll be “ms60.” I think it’s easily forgettable.
Wale: It’s hard to single out a song that stuck out to me, but hearing Naomi Campbell on “ms60” threw me off. It’s just too contrived to bear for me.
WHAT SONG HAS THE BIGGEST HIT POTENTIAL?
Boluwatife: My gut answer would probably be “She Is My Drug,” just because of how she beautifully reworks the melodies from Cher’s “Believe.” DJ remixes of this song could go crazy. But if I were to think a bit more logically, TikTok would probably lap up “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2.”
Daniel Banjoko: “Kiss Me Thru the Phone pt 2” goes crazy. Amaarae and PinkPantheress are the perfect match. This collab feels like it was destined to happen, and it delivers in full. Honestly, I can’t believe it took this long, and now I just need more tracks from these two, ASAP.
Moore: “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2” has the biggest hit potential on the album. The song has a nostalgic, sad party girl vibe that makes it appealing, and it’s also catchy and well-produced. PinkPantheress consistently performs well on platforms like TikTok, and her fanbase overlaps in a really interesting way with Amaarae’s. The collaboration feels organic and exciting, and will likely create a lot of buzz.
OVERALL FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Wale: There is a very visceral quality to how Amaarae expresses desire that I don’t hear very often in a lot of music. It’s abstracted and warped in futuristic textures, but it’s very profoundly human, and it’s always great to hear that even as she advances the sonics of her delivery. I do, however, have an issue with the thematic scope of ‘Black Star.’ I thought there would be overt references to her experiences of navigating her Ghanaian identity, but those references are limited to samples and interpolations. It’s still an incisive listen and a triumph for finding ways to advance music from Africa.
Bamise: It’s Amaarae; she can never go wrong. But for me, this is the album that excites me the least from her catalogue. Other than how bass-heavy some songs on the album are, like “S.M.O.” and “She Is My Drug” among others, it feels similar to other projects I’ve heard from her in a way that’s not exactly refreshing or mind-bending. I may have gotten spoiled by how diverse and eclectic Amaarae’s music tends to be, but I wanted more from her. I expected more gangster, Hip-Hop Amaarae. Thematically, I didn’t get anything that gives the Black Star of Ghana, or black stars are ruling the world. Will I listen again and enjoy every bit of it still, though? Yes, I will.
Shina: So first off, this is a solid body of work. I love the fact that Amaarae stuck with the Dance, Electro-Pop route she was going with throughout the album. The features also played their part, adding their unique touches to each record. I would say, though, a feature I would’ve loved to hear on this project is 070Shake. I think she would have been perfect on “100DRUM,” but we don’t always get what we want, do we? Thematically, I think Amaarae could’ve leaned heavily on her Ghanaian heritage, seeing as the title and cover of the album are a nod to that. Maybe Amaarae just wants us to dance, and that’s what I’m just gonna do, and you should too.
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Tems Partners With Hennessy For Leading Vibe Initiative
Launching in Lagos, Nigeria, this event pioneered by Tems marks the beginning of a continent-wide movement to...
In July, Tems announced the Leading Vibe Initiative (LVI) to support women in music and the creative space on their journey to make a mark in their fields and create space for other women in those industries. Born from Tems’ journey as a self-taught artist with a focus on driving change, the initiative offers training, mentorship, industry access, and community for women in music in Africa.
After a rigorous selection process for its inaugural cohort, Hennessy will join the two-time Grammy Award-winning star to celebrate the launch of the Leading Vibe (LVI) Initiative in Lagos, Nigeria. Held from August 8 to 9, 2025, the two-day event is the beginning of a bold new chapter in Hennessy’s long-standing commitment to music and culture in Africa.
“I’m excited to partner with Hennessy in bringing this initiative to life, supporting talented young women in music as they find their voices, embrace their power, and shape the future of the industry across Africa and beyond,” Tems said about the partnership.
The Leading Vibe Initiative aims to champion the next generation of female artists, producers, songwriters, and music professionals, increasing representation within all areas of music across the continent and beyond.
With Hennessy as lead partner, this ambitious program kicks off with an immersive event in Lagos featuring curated workshops, networking moments, and panel discussions led by top-tier talent from across the global and African music industries.
“Her vision, talent, and purpose align deeply with Hennessy’s legacy of championing those who push boundaries and redefine the world around them. We’re honored to support the Leading Vibe Initiative and to continue empowering African communities and cultures,” said Vincent Montalescot, Hennessy Global Chief Marketing Officer.
Hennessy’s partnership with Tems builds on the brand’s decades-long history of supporting music and artistic expression globally and on the continent. From Hip-Hop to Afrobeats, Hennessy continues to stand beside the artists and communities that shape culture.
In Africa, the Maison has deepened its commitment through meaningful initiatives like In the Paint and now, with the Leading Vibe Initiative, is taking a focused step toward amplifying women’s voices in music. With the Lagos launch as a powerful first step, the Leading Vibe Initiative will expand across Africa and globally, creating a cross-continental network of empowered women ready to shape the future of African music.
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