{"id":2384316,"date":"2026-04-22T13:52:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2384316"},"modified":"2026-04-22T13:52:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:52:38","slug":"the-music-is-not-yours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/the-music-is-not-yours\/","title":{"rendered":"The music is not yours"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Contributors<\/dt>\n
Dami Ajayi (DA<\/abbr>)<\/dd>\n
Emeka Ugwu (EU<\/abbr>)<\/dd>\n
Sa\u2019eed\u00a0Husaini (SH<\/abbr>)<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n

Our most recent recording features the celebrated Nigerian poet, psychiatrist, and music critic Dami Ajayi. The major thread of discussion centers on the evolution of Afrobeats\u2014its origins, global rise, and current uncertainties. Ajayi argues that what is now called \u201cAfrobeats\u201d emerged through a mix of local innovation, diaspora influence, and global market forces, rather than a clean lineage from Fela Kuti\u2019s Afrobeat. He highlights key turning points such as the late 2000s shift in Nigerian listening habits, the 2012 breakout generation of artists, and the role of streaming and international labels. While acknowledging the genre\u2019s global success, he expresses concern about creative stagnation, commercialization, and weak value capture for Nigerian stakeholders, suggesting that the industry may be entering a plateau phase shaped as much by global capital as by local artistic direction. We also briefly reflect on Ajayi\u2019s multidisciplinary career and intellectual journey, situating his work within broader Nigerian cultural production, touching on literature, criticism, and the role of the public intellectual.<\/p>\n

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<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source africasacountry.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contributors Dami Ajayi (DA) Emeka Ugwu (EU) Sa\u2019eed\u00a0Husaini (SH) Our most recent recording features the celebrated Nigerian poet, psychiatrist, and music critic Dami Ajayi. The major thread of discussion centers on the evolution of Afrobeats\u2014its origins, global rise, and current uncertainties. Ajayi argues that what is now called \u201cAfrobeats\u201d emerged through a mix of local […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2384317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2384316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/The-music-is-not-yours.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2384316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2384316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2384316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2384318,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2384316\/revisions\/2384318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2384317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2384316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2384316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2384316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}