Nigerian renowned singer and instrumentalist Seun Kuti has argued that Afrobeats music is not a genre. Kuti explained that the word is generally used to refer to all African music rather than a specific genre.

He pointed out that many Afrobeats musicians and executives do not approach the genre as a whole, but rather produce varied songs that incorporate a variety of inspirations. According to Seun, musicians routinely swing between styles such as dancehall, Nigerian pop, and Amapiano without being limited to a single genre, making Afrobeats a catch-all rather than a specific musical genre.

Kuti said, “I think Afrobeats is more of a title than a genre. You can see Amapiano is the new Afrobeats. It’s the new title, it’s the new thing in Afrobeats. So, Afrobeats is just a generalisation; it’s just a title to identify something from a particular place [Africa]. “I don’t think it’s a genre. Even the gatekeepers, the big names, don’t deal with it like a genre; they don’t work it like a genre. They are [Afrobeats] artists that are eclectic in a way that they could do a dancehall track today, do a blue track tomorrow, do a Nigerian pop sound, jump on Amapiano, and whatever is trending. So, I think it’s actually a title,” he stated.