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“I began to weave Highlife, Dancehall, Afrobeats” – Stonebwoy explains birth of AfroDancehall

Yvonne Nyarko Agyemang August 11, 2026 2 min read

Ghanaian dancehall star Livingstone Etse Satekla, widely known as Stonebwoy, has explained how his distinctive AfroDancehall identity emerged from his attempt to combine different musical influences rather than remain within a single genre.

Speaking on the “Fresh Off the Boat” podcast, the award-winning artiste recalled an early radio appearance when he was asked to explain what kind of musician he was.

“The first time I went on radio they asked me what I did, and I told the guy I could sing, I could rap, I could ragga because I did all of those.”

He said the presenter subsequently handed him an instrumental and asked him to showcase the different skills he had mentioned.

“So he gave me an instrumental, and I did all three. Now it’s up to me to know where I wanna go with it. That’s how come I began to weave highlife, weave dancehall, weave Afrobeats into something,” he explained.

Stonebwoy said defining his sound became even more important as his international profile grew. He recalled preparing for an interview with the BBC in the United Kingdom and realising that he needed a clear description for his music.

“I was preparing my mind. I’m like, ‘If they ask you this one now, what do you do? What are you going to say?’ Because I’ve always had to find a way to describe what I did,” he recounted.

According to the “Manodzi” hitmaker, his body of work had become too diverse to be comfortably placed under one established label. He therefore coined a term that, in his view, captured the combination of African rhythms and dancehall influences that defined his sound.

“I knew that I was gonna have to find a term for this… I said AfroDancehall,” Stonebwoy revealed.

The explanation adds context to Stonebwoy’s long-standing positioning as one of Ghana’s leading dancehall exports, with his fusion of Ghanaian musical elements and Caribbean-inspired dancehall helping shape the sound and identity he has carried onto international stages.

Watch the interview below:

Source: Yvonne Nyarko Agyemang

Yvonne Nyarko Agyemang