What Young People In West Africa Think About AI-Generated Music

Artificial Intelligence is everywhere. What was once a far-fetched concept, often dismissed as fearmongering, is now an inescapable part of everyday life. AI variants have permeated almost every significant part of our lives. You'll find them on your browser and even on your social feed. They are present and have been causing different levels of panic at academic institutions. 

Perhaps its most controversial prevalence has been in the arts, especially music. AI-generated music has been a source of intense debate and cultural pushback, raising questions about copyright, ownership, and the current value of human creativity. While the initial reaction among artists, executives, and listeners was repulsion and fear, those sentiments have since evolved into a call to integrate Artificial Intelligence into the music-creation process. Or at the very least, acknowledge its unshakable presence in the arts.

Between last year and now, major music labels have entered into strategic partnerships that purport to grant them access to and control over how AI tools mine their artists' images and likenesses for their own use. In November 2025, it was announced that labels such as Warner, Universal, and Sony had signed licensing deals with the AI Music company Klay.

West Africa hasn’t been exempt from the spell of AI-generated music either. Last year, Nigerian artist Fave found her song “Intentions” remixed via AI. The remixed version featured a choir and a slower tempo than the original's Afro-pop flow. To reclaim the narrative, Fave released a version of "Intentions" similar to the remix, complete with AI-generated backing vocals. That song is currently the third most-streamed song in her discography with over 16 million streams. Has that instance set the stage for both concern and curiosity? If artists are reclaiming their work from Artificial Intelligence and then releasing it with the assistance of that same technology, what does that do to how listeners, particularly young West Africans who make up 50% of the region’s population, perceive good African music?

For Nigerian music executive Kasope Owoaje, artificially generated music hasn’t altered her perception of, and/or judgment of, good African music. “I think I’m just annoyed by the idea that I could be trying to enjoy real music, and fake music may be mixed in; it makes me think of what the future could look like,” she tells OkayAfrica.

Abdulmuqsit Idowu, a Nigerian culture journalist, echoes Owoaje’s protest against AI’s effect on music taste, while making a case for music as a subjective experience that falls outside the constrictions of good or bad. “Good music has always been subjective, heavily reliant on relatability, emotion, and personal connection,” he says. “So, whether a song is created by a human or assisted by a machine, if it genuinely resonates with someone, then it holds value to that listener, and it's ultimately good music to that individual.”

A changing sound for a changing generation 

The data around how young people perceive AI music is constantly changing and at times, contradictory. A report by Youth Music found that 63% of young artists are open to using AI tools in their music creation process. On the other hand, a recent Luminate finding showed that interest in AI music among young people is declining. It is worth noting that these reports are focused on Europe and the U.S. The reality on the ground in West Africa skews more toward passive acceptance than staunch resistance. AI is being taught to sing in African languages, while more AI-generated music has gone viral from Nigeria to Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, where an AI version of Mauvais Djo’s "Pile" is currently taking over the internet and unofficially soundtracking World Cup season. There is no inclination that this trend will slow down anytime soon. Even outside West Africa, the story trend holds true in African music hotbeds like Kenya and South Africa. This trend is further aided by the slim regulations governing copyright and the use of African artists' images and likenesses.

Still, the sentiment on the ground isn’t one of strong or collective pushback against AI-generated music. Nana Kojo Mula is a Ghanaian writer and music executive who notes that people can no longer easily distinguish AI-generated music from human-made music. 

“Surprisingly, a number of people I've interacted with don't have any qualms with it. As long as the music is sweet, it's good to go,” he says.  “The only ones that don't like AI-generated songs are people involved in music-making. But the average consumer is pretty welcoming to it.”

Rufus Prince, a Lagos-based DJ and creative director, shares that AI-generated music is often crippled by its temporality and limited cultural impact. “People engage with it the same way they engage with content quickly, passively. It fills space well. What it struggles to do is hold emotional weight over time,” he says. “The songs that stick with people are still the ones tied to a specific memory or moment, and AI hasn’t figured out how to manufacture that.”

What young West Africans are actually saying

As Owoaje sees it, AI-generated music has largely decimated the barrier of entry for many. It’s a slippery slope for a generation fed on technological tools that encourage constant convenience. “Anyone can put in prompts now and make a song,” Owoaje explains. “I think the conversation around the marketing of apps like Suno is particularly annoying because they speak about the process of making music like it’s inconvenient, as if the process of making art isn’t inherently tedious, it’s part of what makes it fulfilling. You work through creation, it’s not supposed to be “easy”.”

Prince sees things differently from the production side. “Before AI, we had recording software, digital production tools, mixing, mastering, Auto-Tune, and more,” he says. “AI only adds another layer to that. When it's used intentionally, it can become a powerful creative tool that helps artists experiment with ideas and expand artistic possibilities rather than replace creativity, like people tend to panic about.”

Mula seconds the notion of AI as a tool rather than a replacement for human artistic intelligence. 

“One good bit of it is how artists are able to envision some melodies, flows, and harmonies in their songs before they get into the studio,” Mula says. “For some emerging artists who cannot afford aspects of music production, they rely on AI to help them generate some solutions. Even with songwriting, it helped some artists couch their words properly and make some of their lines more cohesive.”

Still, there is no doubt that other players in the music industry, like visual artists, music video directors, and graphic designers, haven’t entirely fared well with the ease with which many parts of the industry have embraced AI. “Artists are becoming more reliant on AI-generated videos and artworks. Some artists like Shatta Wale have also encouraged artists to embrace the use of AI,” Mula shares. “If AI is being used for graphics and visuals, it won't be long before we start hearing fully generated AI songs being released on the Ghanaian market.”