4 Afrobeat Samples That Have Influenced The International Music Scene

You cannot talk about Afrobeat without mentioning West Africa as this is where it originated from. Developed in the early 1920s in Ghana and later in the 1960s by Fela Kuti and his drummer Tony Allen, what used to be just a local sound has since travelled outside the continent and is now influencing the international music scene. As a result, it’s becoming the norm to see international artists sample Afrobeat songs or collaborate with African musicians. 

Here are four Afrobeat songs that have been sampled by international artists:

Fela’s Mr Follow Follow (1976) sampled by Kelly Rowland in Hitman (2020):

Like most of Fela’s songs, it was a political song that called out the misconduct of the Nigerian army. It was off his 1976 album Zombie.

Last year, Kelly sampled the beats in her song, which was featured by the NFL as part of the NFL’s social justice initiative Inspire Change, aiming to take down opportunity barriers.

Harcourt Whyte’s Otuto Nke Chukwu (1975) sampled in Champion of the world (2019) by Coldplay:

A Gospel Port Harcourt singer and a western rock band are two things that rarely go together but somehow Coldplay made it work. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsaP2lFJRrE

In November 2019, the band put out a tribute to Frightened Rabbit’s lead singer Scott Hutchison who took his life. The song started with an intro from the Igbo gospel hymn by Harcourt Whyte. It goes like this: 

 Gi nwa nke chukwu, gini ka ina ekwu

 N’ihi ihe nile

 Nke chukwu mere

Translated from Igbo to English, the lyrics say:

“You that is of God, what are we going to say?

For everything, God made it”

This is definitely one of the wildest sampling combinations we must say.

Fela’s Gentleman (1973) sampled by J. Cole in Let Nas Down (2013):

Gentleman is one of the songs off Fela’s1973 studio album with the same name. It was written and produced by the late music icon and recorded with his Afrika 70 band.

In 2013, American rapper J Cole released Let Nas Down. It was one of the songs from his second studio album Born Sinner. Fela’s distinct can be heard from the beginning. The late Afrobeat legend is listed as a composer-lyricist on the song. 

Musiliu Haruna Ishola’s Ise Oluwa Ko Seni Toye (2000) sampled by Veronica Vega feat Quavo in A Million (2019):

Veronica said, “I feel incredibly honoured to be able to clear the sample especially because of the message of God that was in the original record”.

The song starts with Ishola’s song but through the song, you can hear it in the background. Who would have thought we would hear Quavo trapping with fuji music playing in the background?