June is African American Music Appreciation Month! Formerly called National Black Music Month, this celebration of African American musical contributions is re-established annually by presidential proclamation.
R&B originated as an African-American genre of popular music in the 1940s, fusing jazz, soul, rock and roll and more. But as it moved through the decades, it shifted, evolved and was subsequently appropriated by numerous artists all around the world.
The predecessor to soul music, R&B is a stylistically-diverse genre with roots in jazz, the blues, and gospel music. R&B helped spread African American culture and popularized the idea of racial integration on the airwaves and in white society.
Contemporary R&B draws on hip hop but it’s categorised by smoother instrumentals, emotive hooks, and pop melodies, as well as banging production that takes influence from house, techno and other electronic genres. It’s often feel-good, party-perfect music but the sad and sentimental numbers are in there too.
Here are some of the best African American songs of all time:
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- ‘Try Again’ - Aaliyah. Released as the lead single for the 2001 film ‘Romeo Must Die’, ‘Try Again’ quickly became much more than just a track associated with a film soundtrack.
- ‘Family Affair’ - Mary J. Blige. This year’s hip hop heavy Super Bowl LVI halftime show was powerful but seeing Mary J.
- ‘Doo Wop (That Thing)’ - Ms. Lauryn Hill.
According to Cash Hollistah’s, "These are my top 10 influential African American songs because, in many ways, these weren't just songs," "These tracks were game changers. Culture shifters. Boundary pushers. Artistic statements."
Cash cites a creative writing class he took as a sophomore in high school as the main catalyst for pursuing a career in music. That pursuit led him to create events in his hometown of Salina - from battle rap competition, "Move The Crowd,” to the monthly open-mic poetry series “ONE MiC."
Here are Cash Hollistah’s top 5 influential African American songs:
- Billie Holiday - "Strange Fruit." "It's a powerful song dealing with racism and lynchings of Black people.
- Mahalia Jackson - "We Shall Overcome." "I've heard many people say that this record was the unofficial anthem of the Civil Rights movement in the 60's.
- Chuck Berry - "Johnny B. Goode."
- Gil Scott-Heron - "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." "The beginning of "socially conscious rap" started here. Unapologetic and brash in its storytelling.
- James Brown - "Say It Loud! I'm Black and I'm Proud!" "This song was turned into a protest chant at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Over the last decade, Afrobeats has made significant inroads in the global music industry, from invitations to conquer the biggest stages in the world to cross-cultural collaborations with Western superstars like Beyoncé, Drake and Ed Sheeran.
And it’s earned institutional recognition. Afrobeats Songs chart in 2022 that ranks the 50 most popular Afrobeats songs in the country every week, two years after the Official Charts Company launched the Official U.K. Afrobeats Chart that ranks the 20 most popular Afrobeats in the nation.
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Last year, The Recording Academy introduced the best African music performance category one year after the MTV Video Music Awards and two years after the American Music Awards presented the best Afrobeats video and favorite Afrobeats artist awards, respectively. And to commemorate the game changers of the genre, Billboard is ranking the 50 best Afrobeats songs of all time.
This list is highlighting the foundational, influential and popular songs within Afrobeats with an s, not to be confused or conflated with Afrobeat, another genre from the 1960s that Fela Kuti pioneered, which fuses West African percussive rhythms and styles like fuji and highlife with American jazz and funk as well as unabashedly political lyrics and chanted vocals.
Emerging in the 2000s, Afrobeats is a popular style of West African music that employs polyrhythms and syncopation and draws inspiration from hip-hop, R&B, dancehall and more while incorporating romantic, celebratory and sociopolitical lyrics sung in Yoruba, Nigerian Pidgin and English.
Billboard staffers and contributors agreed on the following criteria: stylistic representation of the genre, local popularity, regional expansion, cultural impact and commercial success.
To the U.K. to Nigeria - these 50 songs represent how Afrobeats gained momentum at home before migrating and making noise in different markets, echoing the rallying cry of “Afrobeats to the world!” The making of this list did not go without a few debates about which songs stayed and which ones didn’t.
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And even though a few heavy-hitters like the heralded “Big 3” - Wizkid, Davido and Burna Boy - have contributed numerous defining hits, the max number of songs one artist can have on the list is three, to ensure we capture the breadth of the music as best we can by making room for more artists.
Here is a list of the top 50 Afrobeats songs of all time:
- Weird MC - “Ijoya”
- Nonso Amandi - “Tonight”
- Timaya - “Dem Mama”
- Jazzman Olofin feat. Adewale Ayuba - “Raise Da Roof”
- Victony - “Soweto”
- Yahooze - Olu Maintain
- Ice Prince feat. Brymo - “Oleku”
- Kizz Daniel feat. Tekno - “Buga”
- Libianca - “People”
- Asake - “Peace Be Unto You (PBUY)”
- Davido feat. Musa Keys - “Unavailable”
- Yemi Alade - “Shake Body”
- Lojay feat. Sarz and Chris Brown - “Monalisa”
- Oxlade - “Ku Lo Sa”
- Maleek Berry - “Kontrol”
- Tekno - “Pana”
- P-Square - “Personally”
- Runtown - “Mad Over You”
- Mavin All Stars - “Dorobucci”
- Ayra Starr - “Rush”
- Burna Boy feat. Zlatan - “Killin Dem”
- Amaarae feat. Moliy and Kali Uchis - “Sad Girlz Luv Money”
- Fireboy DML feat. Ed Sheeran - “Peru”
Here is a summary of the top 10 Afrobeats songs based on Billboard's criteria:
| Rank | Artist | Song Title |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Weird MC | Ijoya |
| 2 | Nonso Amandi | Tonight |
| 3 | Timaya | Dem Mama |
| 4 | Jazzman Olofin feat. Adewale Ayuba | Raise Da Roof |
| 5 | Victony | Soweto |
| 6 | Olu Maintain | Yahooze |
| 7 | Ice Prince feat. Brymo | Oleku |
| 8 | Kizz Daniel feat. Tekno | Buga |
| 9 | Libianca | People |
| 10 | Asake | Peace Be Unto You (PBUY) |
Afrobeats as a whole - and more specifically, Afropop - is a great driver for party music. It’s what helped the genre...
