Asa Asika: African music will thrive even if the world stops listening to Afrobeats

Asa Asika, Davido’s manager, says Afrobeats would still be fine even if nobody in the world cares.

In a podcast with Bizzle Osikoya and Tobi Mohammed, Asika said Afrobeats is doing well in the global west.

Asika said the Afrobeats genre will never get old because Nigerians and Africans are in all parts of the world.

“There are 54 countries in Africa. How many countries are there in Europe? If nobody in the world cares about Afrobeats again, we’re fine. There are artistes in the US that are only popping in Texas,” the talent manager said.

“They don’t leave certain areas and they’re good. So, it’s all nice that I go to New York and see Olamide’s face in Times Square. I go to London tomorrow, Tiwa is selling out. It’s amazing but if it doesn’t happen, we are fine.

“At the end of the day, Latin America is big in America. What’s the second most spoken language in America? It’s Spanish. Yoruba is not top 10 languages there.

“The thing that helps us is that Africans are all over the world, Nigerians particularly are everywhere.”

Bizzle Osikoya, an executive, said Nigerians are resilient but more education needs to happen in the music industry.

“Afrobeats can never die. The reason why I’d say it can never die is because we Nigerians don’t give up,” he said.

“We’re going to keep building and grinding so that those things don’t stop. So, what just needs to happen is that we need to find a way to educate our industry because failing to do this will kill us.”

Asa Asika, Bizzle Osikoya, and Tobi Mohammed are the founders of The Plug Entertainment, a music company.

They have worked with stars such as Davido, Wande Coal, Oxlade, Tiwa Savage, Victony, Bella Shmurda, and CKay.