The Rising Afroswing Star Who Continues To Break Barriers And Refuses To Conform To Gender And Sexuality Norms
Image via Instagram (@officialdarkoo)
In the UK, when we think of Afroswing, we are quick to sing the praises of the sweet melodic sounds from our UK fave J Hus. Next in mind might be Kojo Funds, Mostack, and Yxng Bane. If you are really into the genre with Afroswing, then you will name super producers, such as Jae5 and Steel Banglez. Some of you might be reading this and thinking, “I mean maybe in 2017”, Yup, the game has changed. There are emerging players that are changing the face of Afroswing, or better yet, players that are finally getting their moment. NSG finally dropped their debut album “Roots” after their hits “Options” and “OT bop” dominated the clubs and UK charts. Tion Wayne is known for dipping in the genre with a likkle feature here and there with several Afroswing artists. He is also closely tied with producer/artist, One Acen.
Last summer, One Acen dropped the video for “Gangsta”. On Black UK twitter, many were surprised to learn the collaborator, Darkoo, was a woman because of the deepness in her voice and the lyrics of the song. What she represents is an exciting moment in Afroswing.
Darkoo made her mark even further in the game with “Juicy,” which effectively felt like a coming out song in the flashiest manor. With her hair dyed blue, matching the sky in the video, she dances and sings alongside of array of beautiful dark-skinned black women, with their deep tones further highlighted against the white background. Then the video transitions to a runway show, with Darkoo embodying enjoyment in the middle of runway. UK Afrodiasporic music has not historically been too welcoming of dark-skinned Black women as the subject of desire and beauty. Afroswing and the overall popularity of afrobeats brought with it a celebration of Black beauty. It was incredible to see Darkoo centre Black women’s beauty whilst also decisively expressing her unique identity in the space of Afroswing, as an out and proud Nigerian British woman.
Darkoo is not restricted by anyone’s expectation of how she should present herself to the world. She proudly flaunts her ability to shape-shift between embodying masculinity than to more “stem” looks and then back again as we see in her latest single “Kryptonite”.
In her interview on Capital Xtra, she stated:
“Even the comments I see, “Oh is she a boy or girl?” You know me? I don’t give a monkeys. I don’t care. I really don’t care. I have gotten to a point where I am so comfortable with myself and I feel like everyone should be like that”.
In the larger context of Afrodiasporic music she’s evidently not alone. Teni is known for her playful, bold and colourful “fresh prince of Bel-air” masculine styles in Afrobeats, whilst possessing softness in her high-pitched singing in Yoruba. Her hightop and durag is tightly attached to her high energy image. This completely obscures how women are “supposed” to present in the very socially conservative Nigeria. Darkoo also shares Nigerian heritage, even though she is based in Britain, the freedom expressed in style is profound and barrier breaking in Britain’s Nigerian community, as it not uncommon for Nigerian families to push our girls and women into rigid gender norms akin to the norms in across modern day Nigeria.
Jumping all the way across the Atlantic to Jamaica, Koffee, representing the new wave of Reggae, also rocks a masculine, casual style, with her locs left to fall down her face. Her music is deeply uplifting, with her lyrics inviting us to centre gratitude in our lives even through the hardest of times. With the lockdown, Black death permeating our social media timelines – her music is certainly cathartic. However, commentary on her style does not come without the politics, questions about her sexuality has come from some listeners, as her style is sharply different from the stereotypical image of woman in reggae of a long gown and headwrap to hold her locs. But also, like Nigeria, Jamaica is deeply socially conservative due to the country’s strong Christian religiosity. With Koffee’s audience increasing worldwide, she does not seem to be held back by those that believe she should not be seen.
When people step out gender norms, people can see it as an invite to dissect the individuals apart and chastise them for their differences, rather than embrace diversity and ingenuity of human beings. Seeing black women in our beloved genres create space and express their various identities in Afrodiasporic music markets enriches our experience of the music as a whole. In the future, hopefully Afrodiasporic music markets will also make space for men who also do not conform to gender and sexuality norms but also want to make music inspired by their homelands, and they are free to do this without their existence being heavily politicised.