A Quick Ting On's Christian Adofo interviewed for The British Blacklist
Author Christian Adofo spoke to The British Blacklist show about his new book and the wider A Quick Ting On series. The first title in Magdalene Abraha's trailblazing non-fiction series, A Quick Ting On Afrobeats was released in February and is the first book on the modern genre.
An extract from the interview reads: "How did you come about A Quick Ting On, and what were your initial thoughts on writing on Afrobeats? Were you excited, daunted, or both?
My esteemed editor and friend Mags (Magdalene Abraha, the creator of the series) asked a mutual friend to recommend a writer on African music. He mentioned me. Now despite my journalism experience over the last decade covering the genre and subculture, I found it initially daunting. As the research process went along, I started to thaw and found a flow and with a balance of storytelling the recent history but still referenced the influence of the past key milestones and my own personal story too.
A Quick Ting on Afrobeats is the first book written on modern Afrobeats. How did you find the research process? Was there anything that surprised you?
Its a fun challenge. I was able to use existing audio and transcripts from my own interview archive to give more context to the growth of Afrobeats. I also used a mix of academic papers, existing literature from the likes of the late African musicologist J.H. Kwabena Nketia and YouTube as a reference to dig incessantly!"
For the full interview, read here.