I thought about this question this morning while looking at the new music Friday list and I’d say No they aren’t actively shaping the culture anymore but they are like door stoppers to keep the name “Afrobeats” resounded enough to not be new for the new guys to get in. They are now just familiar names. Almost like there’s nothing new they can do again, but they are doing things.
Theres something quite not there yet for the next generation, I don’t know what but the sound is good, the energy is fair, the discussions are louder, so why does it feel like we are forcing Afrobeats. Today it’s a question of “is Afrobeats a Nigerian thing or an African thing”, tomorrow it’s a question of “if we are minting new superstars or not” but serious work is going down on every end, documentation is being done both written and with videos, conversations are publicly being had, playlists are everywhere, the world is literally one click away, so why isn’t it as culturally dominant as the 2016 - 2022 run.