Ever since 2020, a new era in music has been born. And this wave of artists are becoming more community-serving, niches and bolder than ever, taking their regional sound to the global stage. Whereas in the past, labels and reachability was limited, now you can have an act like YT easily performing at venues in Canada, for example. Without going through the hurdle of finding a way to market yourself somewhere else as much as your own block or city with its organic listeners.
This also comes at the cost of consumers feeling more experimental with their music taste. Sticking to one genre and completely devoting yourself to that bubble is talk of yesterday. Now you can have a kid from Sweden bumping into an Italian trap due to Tik Tok and the force behind algorithms. However when did that shift start? And what does this mean for the summer of 2025? To best answer these questions, we need to go back to the past starting in 2022, at the peak of the rise of Afrobeats…
How?
What many fail to understand is when Afrobeats was arguably at its peak in 2022, it was due to the decade-long determination by its now OGs, namely Wizkid, Davido and we can not forget Ghanaian singer Fuse ODG as well. For years, these OGs, aside from their home countries, were targeting the US and UK music market, catering to its strong diasporic communities, consequently building a foundation for new acts such as Rema’s “Rave & Roses” and Asake’s “Mr. Money with the Vibe” to walk on. Although at the time, they might have been second to Dancehall, this persistent move of doing concerts and filming music videos abroad was pivotal to introducing the sound to the world. As their consistency grew, so did the diasporic communities’ interest branching out all the way to Spain. All of a sudden, Afrobeats (quickly followed by Amapiano in South Africa) completely took over in 2022!
In 2023; however, you could argue that we saw a rise in UK alternative music reaching new heights as well. With solid projects such as Ragz Originale’s “BARE SUGAR”, Jim Legxacy’s “homeless n*gga pop music” and many more, for the first time since UK Drill, the region had something fresh to look up for. Whereas Afrobeats rise can be pinned down to the determination of OGs, the UK scene is far more complex than that. You see, Ragz or Odeal are not newcomers, which can only mean through the combination of both alternative artists and emerging ones, did they manage to take over the year 2023. While Lancey Foux was grinding in his lane for years now, that also gave the push to similar artistry like Fimiguerrero’s “Immigrant” and Len’s “LEHGOLAND” to gain some traction. If we could pinpoint the beginning of UK buzz, then I think the marketing strategies of mainstream acts such as pop star Central Cee and clothing line Corteiz really sparked an interest across the globe, and they just happened to drop at the right time at the right place. This goes without saying, although not from the same generation, that Skepta and Dave throughout the years, definitely opened the conversation for UK acts to be taken seriously abroad.
Now 2024 took an interesting turn and perhaps surprised everyone in the process; this is when the French music scene stepped up and drew our attention. Their takeover can be still disputed; however, we hadn’t viewed anything like Tiakola, Merveille and arguably the project of the year: “HÉRITAGE” by Tayc and Dadju, setting up a tone in which the rest had to follow. Some may argue that their outreach was selective, mostly attracting French-speaking consumers abroad. On the other hand, if you saw Tiakola and Jim in the studio together, and shortly after, the same French star performing in the United States, everything can be traced back to that particular year. Coming from the overall push of Afrobeats music, collaborations like “IFA” between Oxlade and Fally Ipupa, really set it straight that this is a wave here to stay. On Davido’s recent project “5ive,” one of his top charting songs “Lover Boy” with Tayc and Dadju, really solidified the impact of French afro music.
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Who’s Next?
We are only 5 months deep but, the question still begs; which region will be the front runner of summer 2025? With popular projects coming out in North America like Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR’s “Some Sexy Songs 4 U” and Playboi Carti’s “MUSIC,” they are making the most noise right now. However, some might say the never-ending beef between Drake and Kendrick, and controversies around Carti are overshadowing the music. As a result, they receive more screen time over scrutiny than the music itself. We have the highly-anticipated projects that dropped this year such as Chy Cartier’s “NO BRING INS”, which she is slowly but surely making her mark, YT’s “OI!” and yet to release Jim Legxacy’s “British Black Music” we have confirmed to hear from soon. On the other hand, just like Afrobeats was trying to break through in the US market too early, first by Burna Boy infamous comments on Afrobeats and now Asake, similar to French rapper BU$HI, the UK underground wave has quickly followed suit and risks alienating their core audience as a result.Perhaps a region we can expect to hear more from this year are Germans, namely emerging act Nana Le Vrai and established artist Serious Klein. With a new co-sign and Nana making it onto a UK magazine, there is potential here and it is only a question of time for other German artists to gain momentum. There is an Indian rapper named Hanumankind who had a feature recently with A$AP Rocky (Not to forget “Don’t Be Dumb” is hopefully coming soon!) on “Big Dawgs” and surely opened music listeners to a whole new world. That is to say, this summer 2025 proves to be a promising season and it is only a question of time until someone or somewhere will have the world on a chokehold next.
