Champion Sound: Meet the people behind Atlanta’s Afrobeats & Amapiano scene

Samuel Omidele, known as “Mr Soul,” (above) stands in the DJ booth at Red Room Lounge. The lounge has become a popular late-night party spot on Buford Highway, a result of decades of hard work by the business owner who has been at the forefront of the rise of afrobeats music. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta VoiceThere’s an inevitability when it comes to the sounds of afrobeats and amapiano music. As the upbeat rhythms, energetic melodies, signature drum beats, and inventive productions command a speaker’s sound waves, the sounds born out of West and South Africa have the power to create a bubble of magic in a matter of seconds. That magic is felt in every lyric or shout of joy bursting through lips. Every point toward the sky or a friend. And every bounce and shake of the shoulders down to the soles of the feet.What were once just terms echoed through the streets of Nigeria and fostered in the townships of South Africa are now global treasures with heavy influence. Spotify studies spell out that influence, showing that afrobeats was streamed over 14 billion times and amapiano was streamed over 1.4 billion times in 2023. The music is...