Afrobeats stars help power UK music scene – BPI report

Fireboy DML and Ed Sheeran’s collaboration ‘Peru’, and Rema’s ‘Calm Down’ were among tracks that helped R&B achieve a 10.1% market share, the genre’s first double-figure since 2018. ‘Peru’ recently received the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) platinum certification after selling 1 million copies, while ‘Calm Down’ currently ranks as the most-watched Afrobeats video on YouTube with more than 430 million views.

The Tems-assisted ‘Wait For You’ by US rapper Future also emerged among the 10 biggest hip hop/rap tracks of 2022, while chart-topping acts like British-Ghanaian rapper Stormzy helped the genre claim a record share of the UK albums market in 2022, becoming the third biggest on the singles market behind pop and rock, as it claimed nearly a fifth (18.9%) of consumption across sales and streams.

“As 2023 marks the 50th anniversary since the birth of hip hop and rap, the genre is showing immaculate timing by celebrating another milestone in its remarkable history and claiming a historic annual share of the UK albums market,” BPI CEO Sophie Jones said.

“Hip hop/rap has been hugely popular with British music fans since The Sugarhill Gang’s ground-breaking hit ‘Rapper’s Delight’ at the end of the ‘70s. But while at one time most of its successes here were exported from across the Atlantic, the UK today has a thriving scene of its own, led by brilliant artists such as Dave, D-Block Europe, Little Simz and Stormzy, to name a few. They, and many others in the genre, are taking full advantage of the opportunities provided by streaming, which, with record label support, has placed them at the centre of British music culture and is delivering them hugely-deserved success.”

Pop remained the dominant genre in the singles market, spending 36 weeks at No 1 on the Official Singles Chart, while rock continued as the biggest album genre overall, with dance chalking up its strongest showing in five years, claiming 10th (10.6%) in singles consumption.