Ghana in the Credits
Cross-border features, the U.S. chart and the question of whose sound it is
From Billboard's U.S. chart to Ghana's own music awards, the cross-border feature is everywhere in Afrobeats; this is where Ghanaian acts sit in that traffic.
Juls has a plain explanation for why his records keep more than one country in the room. “I feel like all of those sounds are appealing to people of different cultures, different ethnicities, different backgrounds,” he told Rolling Stone. The magazine described him as a successful Ghanaian producer and DJ.
The record Rolling Stone was writing about made his point for him. According to the same piece, Juls's single ‘Wish You’ features the Nigerian singer Mannywellz and the Dreamville MC Bas, who is Sudanese American. A Ghanaian name on top, a Nigerian voice and a rapper from the American diaspora: three places on one credit line.
That habit runs all through the U.S. chart this autumn. For a Ghana reader, the question is where Ghana sits in that traffic. Billboard's U.S. chart, Ghana's own music awards and what Ghanaian artists and producers have said point the same way. Ghana is in the credits. On the U.S. list, its entries appear to sit below the Nigerian and South African names near the top. The older question of whose sound this is has not gone away either.
First, what the chart measures. Billboard's U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart is compiled by Luminate. It ranks songs by a weighted formula of streams on subscription and ad-supported services, plus download sales. It counts American listening only. A chart position therefore cannot say which name on the credit brought a listener in.
Read with that in mind, the chart for the week of 7 November 2026 looks like a crowded guest list. Victony's ‘Slick’, with Don Toliver and Summer Walker, sits at No. 2 after 17 weeks. Blaqbonez's ‘IKEBE 3000’ featuring Asake is at No. 6. Davido, Mayorkun and FOLA's ‘B4 B4’ is at No. 10, down from a peak of No. 6. BNXN and Asake's ‘Eja Meja’ is at No. 14. Darkoo and Asake's ‘That Girl!’ has come back as a re-entry.
Asake's name keeps turning up, and Pulse Ghana counted how often. In its write-up of the chart for the week ending 5 September 2026, the Nigerian singer appeared on six of the Top 20 entries, as lead or featured artiste. The same report counted the South African star Tyla in more than one top-10 spot. It also noted Jorja Smith and Wizkid's ‘Alive’ jumping ten places into the top 20. On these counts, the heaviest weight on this American chart has sat with Nigerian and South African names.
The busiest Ghanaian name on it this year arrived through shared records. According to Ghana Plug, Kojo Blak became the Ghanaian act with the most entries on Billboard's U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart in 2026. All three entries are collaborations. ‘Perfect’, with Juls and Minz, came in at No. 28. ‘Sailor’, featuring Oxlade, debuted at No. 42. ‘Gymnastic’, with KiDi and Olivetheboy, entered at No. 43.
Those debut positions sit below the songs at the top of November's list. What Ghana Plug counted was persistence: three separate shared records reaching an American chart in a single year.
Ghana's own awards treat the pairing as something worth ranking twice. The International Collaboration of the Year nominees for the 27th Telecel Ghana Music Awards (TGMA) include Black Sherif's ‘So It Goes’ with Fireboy DML and King Promise with Mr Eazi on ‘See What We've Done’. They also include Moliy twice: on ‘Body Go’ with Tyla, and on the remix of ‘Shake It To The Max’ with Shenseea, Skillibeng and Silent Addy. The separate Collaboration of the Year field takes in Kojo Blak with Kelvyn Boy on ‘Excellent’, ‘Gymnastic’ again, and Wendy Shay with Olivetheboy on ‘Crazy Love’. Best Afrobeats Song has its own pairing in the list: Lasmid's ‘No Issues’ featuring King Promise. Moliy's run of shared records goes further still. Music In Africa's magazine carries a headline reporting that Mr Eazi and Moliy's ‘Comfort’ earned an Urban Music Awards nomination.
Ghanaian artists were saying as much years ago. In a 2019 retrospective, OkayAfrica named Sarkodie, Shatta Wale and Efya among the West African artists central to bringing the sound into the mainstream. Sarkodie tied the breakthrough to artists working side by side: “We started doing a lot of collaborations together and pushing our music out there.” The site noted that the remark had been published in an earlier interview. Efya, in the same piece, saw where it was heading: “We are headed towards a lot of collaboration between us and most of the international artists.”
Listeners, by one survey, have come to the same view. MyJoyOnline, citing a 2023 Spotify survey, reported that fans see international collaborations as one of the key drivers of Afrobeats' growth. The same report said Ghana has recorded 181% year-over-year growth in Afrobeats streaming since Spotify launched in the region.
Not every Ghanaian name in that growth rides as the guest. Rolling Stone reported that the Ghanaian American Amaarae's remix of ‘Sad Girlz Luv Money’, with Kali Uchis, became “an anthem for independent women across the internet.” Closer to home, MyJoyOnline reported that Black Sherif's ‘Kwaku the Traveller’ became the first Ghanaian record to reach No. 1 on Apple Music Nigeria.
A Ghanaian record at the top of a Nigerian list brings back the older question of whose genre this is, and a credit line cannot settle it. Rolling Stone, citing an OkayAfrica op-ed by Korede Akinsete, reported that the term ‘Afrobeats’ started in the U.K. club scene of the late 2000s, as a label for primarily Nigerian and Ghanaian music. According to MyJoyOnline, the producer Beatz Vampire argued in 2023 that the world is wrong to assume Afrobeats is purely Nigerian music.
A chart cannot settle it either. It counts plays, as an award list counts nominations, and neither records whether a Ghanaian verse on a Nigerian-led record, or the reverse, pulls a song somewhere new. That is a question for the ear, one song at a time.
Juls, for his part, answered in terms of appeal rather than ownership. ‘Perfect’, with Kojo Blak and Minz, entered at No. 28. Three names are on the credit.
“I feel like all of those sounds are appealing to people of different cultures, different ethnicities, different backgrounds”
- Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart
- Pulse Ghana: Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Top 20, 5 September 2026
- Ghana Plug: Kojo Blak, 3 entries on Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs
- MyJoyOnline: report on highlife, Afrobeats and Ghana's musical legacy
- 27th TGMA Nominees List
- Rolling Stone: From Wizkid to Tems, Afrobeats is Making the World Listen
- OkayAfrica: The Decade in Afrobeats
- Music In Africa magazine