A Visionary’s Forecast of Afrobeats’ Success Story

In a panoramic conversation, Obi Asika, a prolific creative entrepreneur famed for pioneering many ecosystems in the creative industry today talks about the rise of Afrobeats, his love for history and the need for storytellers to be innovative in how they tell their stories,  writes Vanessa Obioha 

His morning was overbooked. Not intentionally though but the implication of that oversight resulted in nearly an hour delay and a lengthy conversation afterwards. His mornings are usually like this, he told me later when we settled down.  By this, he meant having virtual meetings. If he’s not on the laptop, he’s on the phone, tab or whatever device available. He’s been working like this for years, mainly because he works with different people in different places. This requires him to be constantly connected. The toll of this on his personal relationships is not lost but he is taking conscious steps to be less connected to his devices.

Somehow, the irony of a desire to disconnect from a technology that keeps people connected can be mind-boggling. Given the world we live in today, is it possible to really stay off those smart devices? For Obi Asika, the cerebral and prolific creative entrepreneur,  technology has its perks and flaws. It has opened up a whole bunch of opportunities for storytellers to tell their stories, but at the same time one needs to pause and ask: “Am I taking care of myself properly?”

We were at his home in Lekki. He was not alone. His children and other relatives were around so the chuckles and light banter often filtered into the study where we sat. Asika is a lover of memories and that is reflected in his home decor. His spacious living room has walls donned in pictures and paintings. His study is chock-full of books, mementoes, awards, pictures and of course, memorabilia of his defunct record label Storm Records. He now runs another, Cabal. Someday, he intends to do a documentary on Storm Records.

“Not all memories are positive. Everybody has a favourite childhood memory. Everybody has moments in their life that were important that impacted them either seeing it happen as a kid or experiencing it. So, I think we all have memories,” he said.

Beyond keeping memories, Asika described himself as a student of history. This has led him to study his family’s genealogy, the cosmology of Igbos and other historical data. Asika who is from Onitsha in Anambra State has been able to trace about 23 kings of the town to his bloodline. He is the first grandchild out of about 100 grandchildren from his mother’s side. He comes from a line of service where his maternal grandfather was one of the first educationists in the country who retired as the Chairman of the Public Service Commission of the East Central State. His father, Anthony Ukpabi Asika, was the administrator of East Central State, Nigeria during the military regime of General Yakubu Gowon.

“I’m always trying to go back to find out things that I don’t quite understand. What was the motivation? Not just oh, this is what happened. That’s easy. I want to deconstruct. What was the motivation? Why did this happen? Why was this person thinking of this thing in this way? And where did he take those decisions? That is what the real issue is. It’s not about what happened. Everybody knows what happened. But do you understand why it happened? Do you understand the issues involved that made it happen? And I think that’s not something that a lot of us engage in. And I even think as Black people, it’s one of our fundamental problems because we’ve been disconnected because of our unique history of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.

“I call it the reduction of self because you know, European primacy, philosophical, intellectualism, morality and ethos were pushing the renaissance that they have found a higher level, that Europe is now in a renaissance period: arts, literature, culture. At the heights of this renaissance period,  they were also driving the biggest inhumanity known to man which is called the transatlantic slave trade. How did they justify it right? The way they justified it is to pretend that these Africans were subhuman.”

The inability of Africans to question the motive, Asika posited, is the reason they were easily brainwashed into believing their culture is inferior. In Nigeria, however, Asika believes that the main problem is the incapability of Nigerian leaders to define a narrative core for Nigerians.

“Nigerians pretend all day as if they are not Nigerians. You hear people say ‘abeg abeg, I’m from Ogbomosho…I’m from Onitsha.’ The day somebody that is not a Nigerian attacks a Nigerian, you will know where they are from. Nigerians are easily identifiable by their confidence but sometimes we act as if we don’t know who we are. If you listen to some Nigerians all day, nothing good has ever come out of Nigeria but that is not true.”

One of the positive things that has the Nigeria emblem in the world today is Afrobeats, according to Asika. Every success recorded in the technology space today, to the creative entrepreneur, came from Afrobeats.

He explained it this way: “I claim all those successes for Afrobeats because it is the energy, the attitude and the mentality of the people that unlocked Afrobeats that is driving all these things. Because what you have to understand is that somebody had to believe in Nigeria. Somebody had to believe in Nigerian talent. Someone had to explain to Nigerian talents that listen, you don’t need to be American, you don’t need to be English. You can be yourself from where you are, say it in pidgin, in your own language, do it your own way, adopt the things that come from outside. That’s why I always tell people that hip-hop is the first cousin of Afrobeats.”

Asika is one of the respected Afrobeats pioneers in the country today. Famed for creating ecosystems in the creative space, Asika, in 1991, created a show ‘Clapperboard Weekend Raps’. The show was aired on Saturday afternoons on the defunct TV channel and syndicated on 30 Nigeria TV channels. It was the first nationally syndicated TV show in the country and featured Jimmy Jatt as the in-house DJ.

“Sometimes you are doing things to impact people, but you don’t know the impact until later.”

The show was the launchpad for Jatt’s deejaying career and fame, Asika disclosed.

“Jimmy started getting bookings from universities and other places in the country. For 30 years, he has been touring in Nigeria and worldwide from one show that started the whole thing,” he said.

Recently, Asika produced a 10-part documentary ‘Journey of the Beats’ that chronicled the rise of Afrobeats. Exclusive to Showmax, the documentary features historians, musicians, journalists, art and culture custodians who traced Nigerian music from the pre-colonial days, while addressing key issues that affected the music industry.

The documentary was in the pre-production stage when we had this conversation but Asika was very clear on the progenitor of the Afrobeats movement.

“I believe that Junior and Pretty was the fundamental album that started this whole Afrobeats journey.”

Not a few knew that the music duo back then were first signed to Asika’s Storm Records. He recalled that the first time the artists showed up, they rapped like Americans.

“And I was like, ‘what are you doing, why are you rapping like an American? Guy, you never leave Ajegunle, why are you rapping AK-47, rap about your trip from AJ to the Island.’”

Asika used this method to bring out the inspiration in the artists. It is the same with Naeto C and other artists who were signed to his record label.

At the time Asika was pushing Junior and Pretty and the sound of Afrobeats, not a few people believed in him.

“The record labels had no belief. The Premier, EMI, had no belief that there was a Nigerian youth market which everyone is now chasing in 2022 that was even important, let alone relevant. The whole world knows now that the Nigerian youth market drives the worldwide youth culture. Our journey is a journey of validation.”

One of the things that excites Asika about Afrobeats today is that it is happening in his lifetime.

“We are telling the story because I think Nigeria does many great things but doesn’t tell the story.”

He cited an example with the Big Brother Naija show which he produced the first season (He also produced the first Dragon’s Den, Apprentice Africa, Nigeria 99 etc). Despite the popularity of the show, a Google search showed that many African countries were the ones thanking Nigeria for the Big Brother Naija show. Asika rolled out names of African countries that benefitted from Nigeria’s intervention one way or the other, including South Africa during the apartheid period.

“We negotiated their (South Africa) freedom. Every Nigerian paid tax to the ANC for 20 years. We led anti-apartheid for 40years… half a million South Africans went to school in Nigeria free, paid for by Nigerian citizens. No South African should ever disrespect a Nigerian,” he said emphatically. “The reason they still do is because we have not told the story. When you tell the story, everybody knows the story. If you don’t tell the story, nobody knows.”

The way forward for young Nigerians to know their story for Asika is “we have to do a better job of telling the story. We have to refresh the history curriculum and change the way we deliver history. It’s all about how we tell our stories.”

But the onus is on the storytellers to tell the story in a world-class manner because to Asika, it is the storytellers that hold the moral arc of every nation.