Afrohype: How Nigerian Hypemen Are Reshaping Afrobeats Shows

A style of emceeing built on ad-libbed shouts and ‘onomatopoeic sounds’ has grown into its own Afrobeats subgenre in Lagos, according to The Guardian. Practitioners call it Afrohype, or lamba. One of its leading figures, Toby Shang, says he and others are the genre’s “evangelists and pioneers.”

What is Afrohype, or ‘lamba’?

Hypemen neither sing nor rap in full, the Guardian reports. They perform high-energy ad-libbed vocals over existing beats or popular instrumentals, including Dorime, a Nigerian-made version of the 1996 track Ameno by the French group Era. Dorime has become a nightclub staple across the continent, according to the report. Hype acts now appear at wedding after-parties, raves and corporate events, the Guardian found.

Who is Toby Shang?

Toby Shang was born Tobi Michael Adeyeye. He picked up the nickname in 2015, during his first semester in the history program at the University of Lagos, after a classroom presentation on the 16th-century Chinese Shang dynasty left classmates so impressed they started calling him Shang, the Guardian reports. He had already built his crowd-engagement style in high school as a “ginger-man,” or energiser, in a three-man band, and as a private tutor.

By his final year at university, catchphrases that spread among students had turned into a hit song, Shedibalabala, according to the report. He is now 32.

“Even my mother calls me Shang now,” he told the Guardian near the University of Lagos lagoon waterfront, where he once emceed student gatherings.

What has Toby Shang built since university?

Since his student days, Shang has hosted his own rave, released two EPs and run four editions of his School of Hype, a one-day masterclass with online mentoring, the Guardian reports. The program has helped launch several rising hypemen, according to the report.

How does a hype performance work at a party?

When a hypeman works a crowd, nightclub patrons respond by spraying or donating money, the Guardian notes, invoking the Nigerian custom of throwing or placing cash on someone to celebrate them. The exchange — ad-libbed shout, crowd reaction, money sprayed — is central to how the genre functions live, according to the report.

Where else is the genre showing up?

Afrohype has moved beyond nightclubs into weddings, raves and corporate parties, the Guardian reports. On Instagram, one teenage performer has built a following recording 30-second hype clips for birthday celebrants, according to the report, suggesting the format is adapting to short-form video as much as live stages.

The Guardian’s reporting does not quantify how many hypemen are working in Lagos or how much money the genre generates, and no figures on audience size or earnings are cited in the original story.