Rare Photos Chart The Rise of Wizkid, Burna Boy and Davido

AfroBeats has swept the world of music like a tsunami – he dominates the reading lists and his fans collapse in huge stadiums to hear Nigerian superstars Wizkid, Davido and Burna Boy.

Photographer Oliver Akinfeleye, known professionally under the name of “drummer”, caught the wave of Afrobeats early – and he decided to document it as he became a global phenomenon.

Since 2017, the New Yorker of Nigerian origin has had exclusive backstage behind the scenes of some of the greatest artists of the genre – capturing more calm moments of reflection as well as stage performances.

“I remember my first project with Wizkid as it was yesterday – Echostage Washington DC, 2017,” the drummer told the BBC. “The feeling was exhilarating. It was my job to tell the visual story of the way it all happened.”

The drummer has not stopped clicking since – and has now released Eagle Eye, a book of photographs presenting the rise of the humble of Afrobeats to one of the largest cultural exports in Africa.

AfroBeats has its roots in various West African musical genres which have become particularly popular in the decades which followed independence while the continent began to celebrate its freedom of colonial domination.

Highlife, who prospered along the coast of the end of the 19th century, became synonymous with the national identity of Ghana after independence in 1957 – and was in turn very influential on the Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. Its AfroBeat movement (less “S”), which mixed traditional rhythms with funk and jazz, has become the sound of the 1970s and 1980s in West Africa.

At the turn of the millennium, this rich cultural heritage fueled in Afrobeats, as well as a mixture of Western pop, rap and dancehall.

He has gained popularity in the United Kingdom and North America, where there are large diaspora populations, especially from Nigeria, where most stars of the genre come from.

Afrobeats artists began to perform in these communities at the start in small sites in the early 2010s.

Then, it takes off – between 2017 and 2022, AfroBeats experienced a growth of 550% of spotify flows, according to data from the most popular streaming service in the world.

This has made many artists become names of households in the world and the music industry by taking note.

He continued to include African music in consumer reward ceremonies like Grammys.

Today, these artists easily pack stages like Madison Square Garden in New York – Photo below before Wizkid’s performance in 2023.

“Madison Square was a night to remember – the emblematic location illuminated in the colors of the Nigerian flag honoring our homeland,” explains the drummer.

The drummer was able to take pictures of the musicians at the start of their world career.

“I always felt that I was capturing moments with just my eyes. Walking in the streets of New York, I would set up scenes in my mind – people, light, emotion,” said the photographer.

“I would wonder, how can I translate this mental perspective in reality?”

Little by little, the public grew up and has become more international with countries like China, Germany and Brazil.

Now, even non -African musicians take the Afrobeats sound and publish their own versions, including artists such as Chris Brown, who released Blow My Mind With Davido.

The American singer also played with Wizkid in London – as shown in the photo below of 2021.

“I love this photo because when Wizkid brought Chris Brown out to O2 Arena, the place exploded. No one saw him coming – the energy has changed instantly,” said Drummer.

“Shock, excitement and pure electricity. A moment stamped in memory and in history.”

The drummer says that one of the objectives of the photo book is not to show people what he has seen, but to help them feel what he experienced – through his photos.

This sometimes reveals the feelings of superstars in their private moments.

This final photo wizkid shows behind the scenes of his phone in 2021.

It was “a rare calm moment”, but even in silence and calm, its presence spoke long, explains the drummer.