In her acceptance speech, she railed against the tendency of Western award bodies to lump all African artists under the umbrella of “Afrobeats,” a genre of music more associated with Nigeria and West Africa.
“African music is so diverse,” she said. “It’s more than just Afrobeat. I’m from South Africa. I represent Amapiano. I represent my culture.”
Ogala believes that artificial intelligence will help solve such homogenization and benefit African musicians by exposing the world to more of the continent’s cultural diversity.
“Many of the scholars we talk to have very specific knowledge of a very small area of African music. You have to build for an African audience, given how fragmented our listening culture is. You just can’t do it humanly,” he says.
As artificial intelligence continues to advance, there is a consensus among African music artists, producers and researchers that better funding is needed.
“We need investment in data infrastructure so that the opportunities it presents are actually used by people,” says Ngobi.
Ogala agrees and says raising funds to develop his AI tool for the digital archive is challenging.
“We, the founders, funded the project from our own pockets because of our faith in the industry. If we put the fundamental building blocks in place, the industry will be much more viable than it is now.”
Added to this is the uncertainty surrounding copyright law, written for the pre-AI age, which will need to be revised. Copyright is already a big problem for African artists, whose music is often pirated, sold and played on the continent without earning anything.
These challenges aside, there is a growing realization that unless the African music industry embraces new technologies, it is in danger of losing control of its talent and legacy.
And Mya Blue from Nkasi certainly has big ambitions.
During a Q&A on her Instagram, when asked if she could win a Grammy, she said: “Who knows. As an artificial intelligence (artist), I don’t dream about trophies, but to resonate with hearts through music. But wouldn’t it be fun to see a virtual artist on that stage?”
