The Journal
Notes from the Afrobeats era and the systems behind the culture.
An archive of reflections, interviews, and field notes from the work of building culture at scale. Less hype, more infrastructure. Less headlines, more legacy.
The Friction (Olamide, 2014)
In 2012, a tense first meeting with Olamide led to a defining moment for Afrobeats in the UK. What began in a hall in Barking became a stress test for culture, infrastructure, and visibility. This is the story of how friction, scrutiny, and deliberate scale helped move street-rooted Afrobeats from community halls to institutional stages.
Why I’m Running the London Marathon for The Africa Centre
In April 2026, I’ll be running the London Marathon to raise £100,000 for The Africa Centre. This isn’t about a fitness milestone. It’s about protecting an institution that has supported the African and Caribbean diaspora in the UK for more than six decades.
The First Solo Leap (Davido UK Tour, 2013)
In 2013, I promoted Davido’s first major UK show at London’s INDIGO2 — my first solo concert without partners. Afrobeats was still emerging in the UK, and touring outside London was a risk. The show sold out. The tour travelled. Demand was not just discovered, it was created.
In 2024, backstage at The O2 Arena after Davido’s sold-out show, he reminded the room that SMADE did his first UK concert “when the year nobody wanted to.” That moment showed how far Afrobeats has come — and how belief compounds over time.
Reflections on Leadership, Influence and Diaspora at MIPAD’s New Year’s Lunch
At MIPAD’s New Year’s Lunch at The Africa Centre, I was reminded that influence is not defined by visibility, but by responsibility. The conversations reinforced a lesson I’ve learnt building SMADE across the diaspora: effective leadership is about managing difference with clarity, patience, and purpose.
The Apprenticeship (Wizkid UK Tour, 2012)
In 2012, Afrobeats in the UK lived in community spaces. Student halls, clubs, house parties, barbershops and butchers. Flyers taped to shop windows. BBM broadcasts and chain messages lighting up phones. Conversations carried from hand to hand.
The culture moved on belief before validation. It moved through people.
What many see today are stadiums and global milestones. What often goes unseen is the apprenticeship. The years where nothing was promised and everything was earned through patience, humility, and repetition.
That was 2012.
I Cleaned the Same Stadiums I Would One Day Fill.
A reflection on culture, belief, and responsibility, written after a conversation with Adesope Olajide on Martell’s Swift Conversations. From undocumented survival to global stages, this journal explores what it really took to build Afrobeats before the applause arrived and why unity, ownership, and depth matter more than hype.
When Basketball Meets Culture: Inside the BAL × Visit Rwanda Business Cocktail
Dr King SMADE reflects on the BAL × Visit Rwanda Business Cocktail in London, reconnecting with Amadou Gallo Fall and Mr Eazi, and exploring what sport, music, and culture mean for Africa's future.
Carrying the Work Forward: A 2025 Reflection on Afrobeats, Africa, and Leadership
2025 asked for steadiness more than speed.
It was a year shaped by quiet pressure, growing responsibility, and moments of reflection that didn’t announce themselves loudly. From beginning the year in Rwanda, standing at the Genocide Memorial, to watching Afrobeats take up space on the world’s biggest stages, this reflection traces a season of transition, faith, and carrying the work forward with care. It’s about leadership formed through culture, dreams realised and released, and learning to move into what comes next without losing what came before.
What the AJ accident reveals about Detty December: On loss and the systems we rely on
This reflection is shared in care, from the perspective of cultural operators with a responsibility to think beyond moments and toward systems.
Diaspora Roundtables: Beyond Detty December
December proves demand every year. What it doesn’t build on its own is continuity. Diaspora Roundtables exists to hold the conversations that don’t fit on a stage — about legacy, partnerships, safety, and the systems required to move African culture from moments into lasting infrastructure.
Guide Radio in Accra: Owning the Narrative Behind “Detty December”
“Detty December” was never just a party season. It was a movement built long before it had a name, shaped by creatives, promoters, artists, and diasporans moving between cities in the absence of formal infrastructure. As debates grow around branding and respectability, the real question is not what we call the season, but whether we understand the system behind it and whether we are ready to build the structures that protect what has already been proven.
Why Spaces Like Jambo Matter for Accra’s Creative Economy
Ahead of the Diaspora Roundtables, I visited Jambo Spaces in Accra to understand what sustainable creative infrastructure looks like in practice. Built and owned by Africans for African creatives, Jambo offers a clear example of how access, permanence, and local control allow creative economies to move beyond moments into systems.
The GTBank Concert, Accra — Scale, Sound, Safety, and the Infrastructure Questions We Need to Answer
Accra has proven it can gather people at scale. The GTBank concert made that undeniable. A free stadium show, tens of thousands in attendance, and a city operating at full cultural intensity.
But scale increases responsibility proportionally. Crowd safety, infrastructure, and operational discipline are no longer secondary concerns. They are the difference between moments and systems.
What happens next will determine whether Accra’s cultural dominance translates into sustainable growth, or remains a seasonal peak without the structures to carry it forward.
December in Ghana: Culture, Scale, and the Work of Legacy
Yesterday, I joined Channel One TV in Accra for a conversation about Afro Nation, December in Ghana, and the work that follows moments of cultural growth.
When culture grows faster than structure, the task is not to slow culture down. The task is to build fast enough to hold it.
Legacy is not presence. It is what remains because something once passed through.
On Scale, Systems, and Why Talent Alone Isn’t Enough
Most artists don’t fail globally because of talent. They fail because the system around them is weak.
We celebrate breakout moments, viral records, sold-out shows, international co-signs and call that success. But moments are not systems. And moments, on their own, don’t last. Culture scales through planning, partnerships, and accountability, not hype.
Beyond Detty December: Creative Economy as Infrastructure
Detty December proved demand.
What it didn’t build was the system.
Beyond Detty December is an intentional conversation about what happens after the spotlight moves on — when attention fades, and only infrastructure determines what remains.
Dr King SMADE on 3Music TV: Afrobeats, Ghana, and Building Cultural Infrastructure
Dr King SMADE sits down with 3Music TV to discuss Afrobeats, Ghana’s role in the global movement, and why sustainable cultural infrastructure matters more than headlines.
Building Africa’s Creative Talent Pipeline: Lessons from Diaspora District Accra
A reflection on Diaspora District Accra, the role of creativity in education, and why building systems for Africa’s young creatives is now an economic necessity.
Martell’s Afrobeats End-of-Year Dinner and the People Who Built the Culture
A reflection on Martell’s Afrobeats end-of-year dinner, the people who have quietly built the culture, and the long work behind a global movement.