Before the Album, Rapsody Went to Ghana
Rapsody did not come to Ghana for a show. There was no tour routing to explain the visit, no announced album cycle. She came to walk the country, and she came with questions about where she was from. Amino’s 2025 film, “Rapsody in Ghana, A Conversation With Joseph Amino,” follows those questions through markets and […]
How DJs Helped Take Afrobeats Global
Trill Xoe, a Lagos-raised DJ and producer who studied in Mauritius and has worked with Native Records, remembers hearing Afrobeats there, thousands of miles from home. Hearing the sound playing loudly from a DJ set felt like more than a surprise. “Just being in a foreign man’s land where they don’t speak English, and just […]
How Lagos Moves
There are two words I’ve long used to describe Lagos: beautiful chaos. They may read like an oxymoron, but they are the closest thing the city has to a definition. To understand Lagos, you must first allow that contradiction to settle in your mind. Only then does the city begin to reveal itself, not as […]
How Nigeria Was Everywhere and Nowhere at the World Cup
Where the 2026 World Cup rank in recent history is discourse for another time, there’s no doubt that it has uniquely taken its place as a cultural tentpole. A reason for this? The host nations, particularly the United States, which, months before the tournament kicked off, was speculatively doomed because of anti-immigration sentiments, ICE crackdowns, […]
The Hotels That Actually Know Where They Are
The Hotels That Actually Know Where They Are Cultural programming has become one of hospitality’s most overused promises. Here’s how to tell the difference between a hotel that has genuinely embedded itself in a place — and one that has simply dressed the lobby. Credit: HBD Principe – Oca Sundy Restaurant, Sundy Praia, Príncipe Island […]
Best of Music 2025
In July 2024, a Nigerian comedian named Brain Jotter posted a dance video to a song released in 1983. Within
Homegrown to High Fashion: African Musicians’ Style Journey and Cultural Pride
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Burna Boy (@burnaboygram) Burna Boy in Ozwald Boateng at The Met Gala 2025 African musicians have long used fashion to reflect their cultural roots and global ambitions. In the early 2000s, as genres like Afrobeats gained momentum, artists championed local designers, wearing traditional fabrics […]
How African Music Conquered the World (and Why It’s Just Getting Started)
African music has always transcended mere sound. It is memory incarnate, ritual transformed into rhythm, protest given voice, and joy made manifest—a living pulse that carries history from one generation to the next. Over centuries, that pulse has traveled across oceans, first carried by force through slavery, later shared by choice through cultural exchange. […]
How African Streetwear Brands Are Rewriting the Narrative and Amplifying African Music
Streetwear started as a shout—a way for kids to break free from fancy runways and stiff rules. It grew up with hip-hop and skate vibes in places like New York and LA, all about realness and attitude. Now, Africa’s taking it and making it its own. From Lagos to Johannesburg, brands like Daily Paper, Free […]