Exploring the 'Mara’ Sub-Genre of Afrobeats

If you’ve paid close attention to Nigerian pop in the past five years, chances are that you’ve heard a ‘Mara’ record. Titled with dramatic flair, it’s the charged music and dance belonging to several hoods within Mainland Lagos — from Ketu to Ajegunle and other such areas. It’s very fast music, and that urgency is also reflected in its legwork dance, where two legs are usually placed apart while rocking up a storm on their own.

Around 2019, it became common for producers to reflect public consciousness by building beats around popular voice clips. Often sampling mispronounced words or funny situations, the electronic-nodding production then bursts into a colorful roll of sound. Effects such as breaking bottles and turntable scratches might be infused, elevating the dramatic quality. “DJ YK Mule!” an excited voice might proclaim, although there are many stars in Mara’s rising galaxy.

So far, DJ YK Mule has been closest to mainstream audiences, showing an unparalleled zeal to direct the showcase of his work. He’s known on a name basis within the country — and especially within Lagos — and has had favorable international coverage. His 2024 record “Mule Dance” captures the signature elements of recent Mara music: there’s almost no singing, just vocal chops placed at delicious spots over the lean, quick beat. 

Mara music, however, stretches deeper than the surface perception of what it can be. Alongside YK Mule, producers like DJ Khalipha and DJ Cora are famed for their raw showcases of Mara, working closely with dance communities online to visualize a sound that constantly demands to be seen as much as it’s heard. That penchant for joyful performance is a huge reason why Mara music is seen by its young audience from the places it emerged from in a positive light, even in the face of elitist snobbery over its artistic value. 

From a Spotify playlist to innumerable features on the hypnotic house-aligned music, Mara is now undisputedly an important Afrobeats sub-genre. “Shaolin” by Seyi Vibez and “OZEBA” by Rema are just two songs by pop acts that have incorporated Mara’s influence, but the signs have always been there in mainstream culture, according to the Mara Mania exhibition currently ongoing in Lagos. 

A multidimensional showcase blending in-depth research with creative presentation, there’s a simple ambition of joy evident in the project. Mara Mania is curated by Dike Anthony, Marianne Ournac, Anuoluwapo Sangokunle, and Dolapo Amusat, the founder of WeTalkSound, a robust creative company that directed an accompanying documentary. On a block of the showcase titled Mara Forex, the evolution of the movement was presented in yearly updates, stretching back to the eighties. 

Tracing Mara's Street Music and Dance Lineage

In their presentation, the curators rightly pointed out that dancehall-adjacent artists like Daddy Showkey and Baba Fryo depicted street dances, working the ‘Galala’ sub-genre into an audio-visual act. From the early 2000s to later that decade, more combative figures rose to imprint distinct styles upon the mainstream: ‘Konto’ was a development on Galala, embodied on records such as Original Stereoman’s “Ekwe” and African China's “Crisis.” 

Along the line came several others who searched the street’s deepest pockets for inspiration. From Terry G to Timaya and Klever Jay, many artists are still flexing the union between dance and song. By this time, ‘Pangolo’ was the sub-genre’s chosen name, and by 2017, the ‘Shaku Shaku’ wave swept in, where the dances now ascribed as ‘Mara’ gained prominence internationally. 

As part of its walk-through space at the Alliance Française, the Mara Mania exhibition featured a VR cut-out which showed you how to dance Mara and a drum machine with stems from a Mara producer, where visitors tried their hand at replicating the sound. There was even space for a tricycle, in Nigeria known as ‘keke napep.’ Such spaces are usually hotspots for this distinct genre of music, with drivers playing the Mara mixtapes on loop for much of their rides. Showing how the art intersects with the larger society was quite important, says the curators. 

“We worked closely with people in the community,” says Dike Anthony, the creative director of Mara Mania. “We visited the community, we took a lot of references and tried to create as much as an interactive and immersive experience about the journey. The goal for us — by the time people are done going through this exhibition, if somebody says ‘Mara’, you know what it means. This exhibition cuts through different experiences from music, dance, and street culture.” 

The execution of the exhibition demonstrates intent that could benefit Afrobeats on a wholesome level. With several emerging sub-genres, more people want to understand what they’re really about. It goes beyond identifying the music but also knowing its origins and stories. Such interest in characters and timelines is what keeps generations connected to a sound, regardless of how near or far it sways from popular attention. 

Right now, it surely sways near, with DJs at youth-centric raves like Monochroma VII and Insert Nights often incorporating the sound into their set lists. The Nyege Nyege festival in Uganda also featured performances from Mara practitioners, which included DJ Tobzy and the dancer Skilo Richie, with American superstar DJ Skrillex playing DJ Khalipa’s anthem “Mara Pass Mara” on the Nyege stage. The signs of abundance are clear; there’s never been a better time for the sound. 

Dike speaks on the project’s timing. “It’s a very crucial point,” he says, “if we don’t talk about stories like these right now, there’s a chance that it can get diluted as it becomes more popular, and there’s a lot of other people jumping on the hype. So it’s very important to define the story, especially from the start, so that as people are engaging, there’s a clear track of the people that started this, what the core community stands for, and what the sound is meant to represent at the end of the day.”