How to make Afrobeats with AI (2026 guide)

You have a melody stuck in your head, a story you want to tell, or you just want to hear a talking drum answer a horn section over a Lagos groove. Good news: making Afrobeats with AI now takes about two minutes. This guide walks you through it step by step with the AfrobeatMi studio — from a rough idea to a file you can share — and shows you how to get a track that actually sounds like the genre, not generic pop with a couple of shakers on top.

First: Afrobeat or Afrobeats?

The two words look alike, but they are not the same music.

• Afrobeat (no "s") was born in Lagos in the late 1960s. Yorùbá percussion, highlife guitar, funk and jazz: long songs, interlocking polyrhythms and a brass section that carries the argument.
• Afrobeats (with an "s") is its pop offshoot that went global in the 2010s: shorter songs, melodic hooks, cleaner production and a strong dancehall and R&B influence. It usually sits between 95 and 118 BPM.

Knowing which one you are aiming for changes everything: the style you pick, the length of the track, how much room the horns get. For the full story, read our deep dive on where afrobeat comes from.

Step 1: Pick a style

The studio offers 20 styles in three families:

• The afrobeat core: Classic Afrobeat, Modern Afrobeats, Afro-Fusion, Naija Pop, Afro-Fuji, Highlife, Jùjú Music, Alté.
• West African and diaspora cousins: Afro House, Afro Tech, Deep Afro, Azonto.
• Fusions: Afropop, Afro Hip-Hop, Afro R&B, Afro-Latin, Afro-Dancehall, Afro Trap, Lo-Fi Afro, Afro Soul.

Every style keeps the genre's DNA — talking drum, percussion, guitar, brass — and the fusions add one outside element without leaving afrobeat behind. A simple rule of thumb: for a modern club record, start from Modern Afrobeats or Naija Pop; for a long, horn-heavy groove, Classic Afrobeat; for something late-night and moody, Alté or Afro Soul.

Step 2: Describe your track

In the Create tab, Simple description mode is enough for a first try. You write a few lines and the AI composes both the music and the lyrics.

A good description answers four questions:

1. What mood? Party, nostalgia, love, pride, late night…
2. What story? A concrete scene beats an abstract theme: "a wedding in Surulere" rather than "joy".
3. What voice and language? Female or male vocals, in English, Yorùbá, Pidgin…
4. Which instruments up front? Deep talking drum, soft saxophone, male choir…

For example:

A soulful Afrobeats track for a Lagos summer night, female vocals in Yorùbá and English, anthemic chorus, deep talking drum.

The style builder

Short on ideas? The style builder offers tags in four categories: moods, voices, instruments, and tempo and rhythm. Click a tag and it is added to the specialised prompt of the style you picked.

Advanced settings

To go further, the advanced settings let you choose the model and adjust style fidelity and the creativity / weirdness slider: low keeps the track faithful to the genre, high makes it more experimental. You can also tick Instrumental for a track with no vocals, or set the voice to female or male.

Step 3: Write the lyrics (or get help)

If you already have lyrics, switch to Custom mode: add a title, paste your text and structure it with tags like [Verse], [Chorus] or [Bridge].

Starting from scratch? The Lyrics tab helps. Give it a theme — a story, an emotion, a place — pick the language, and the studio suggests two structured sets of lyrics. One click sends them straight to the Create tab.

Vocals can sing in English, Nigerian Pidgin, Yorùbá, Igbo, Hausa and French, and can mix languages within one track. A pattern that often works: one lead language for the verses, a Yorùbá or Pidgin phrase for the hook. All our writing tips are in our guide to afrobeat lyrics.

Step 4: Generate and listen

Hit Generate my afrobeat. About two minutes later, two full versions appear. Listen to both: often one has the better chorus and the other the better groove. Every track is saved to your library.

If neither version lands, tweak the description rather than re-running the same prompt: name an instrument, switch style, move the creativity slider.

Step 5: Extend, remix, split

A first take is only the start. The studio has three tools to keep working on a track.

Extend

The Extend tab continues a track from your library, or an audio file. You choose the second to continue from (empty = the end of the track) and give a direction: "energy build-up, brass breakdown, then the talking drum returns".

Remix

The Remix tab reinterprets audio you own the rights to as afrobeat: your voice, a demo, one of your own songs. Accepted files: MP3, WAV, M4A, OGG or FLAC, 8 minutes at most. You can also start from a track in your library, or record from the microphone on the Workshop plan and above.

Split the stems

The Stems tab breaks down a track made on the platform. The vocals and instrumental split is open on every plan, within a daily limit. The every instrument split, up to twelve tracks (drums, bass, guitars, keys, brass…), is included from the Pro plan on. Ideal for DJ sets, live shows and re-arrangements.

Step 6: Export and download

Your first 3 MP3s are free on the free plan; after that, tracks download with a pack from €0.99 or a paid plan. Depending on your plan:

• WAV, uncompressed, for mastering and distribution: from the Essential plan;
• MP4 video with an audio visualiser and cover art, ready for TikTok, Instagram and YouTube: on the Pro and Unlimited plans, or for 7 days with the Pro Pass.

For commercial use, the licence comes with the Pro and Unlimited plans, or for 7 days with the Pro Pass. A track's licence is fixed when it is created. Every plan is detailed on the pricing page.

Three tips for a real Afrobeats sound

• Name the talking drum. It is the genre's signature: mentioning it in the description puts it at the heart of the track.
• Think call and response. A lead voice calls, a chorus answers — one of afrobeat's trademarks. Write it into your lyrics.
• Keep the hook short. Four to eight words, easy to sing. The verse is the runway; the hook is the song.

FAQ

Do I need to know music to make Afrobeats with AI?

No. A few lines of description are enough: the AI composes the music and writes the lyrics. Musicians can go further with their own lyrics, remixes and stems.

How many tracks can I make for free?

The Discover plan gives you 15 generations a month (3 a day at most), no credit card needed, with MP3 downloads. Each generation produces two versions.

Why a specialist studio instead of Suno or Udio?

Because the genre's styles are called by name and each one keeps its sound. We compare the three honestly on our Suno and Udio alternative page and in Suno or Udio for Afrobeats?.

Ready? Open the studio and make your first track.