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Abella Mobisson has been around boxing most of her life. Her father was a professional boxer turned boxing coach & owned a gym where she spent much of her pass time while growing up.
After the death of her father...
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Abella sits in her hotel suite staring straight ahead at the interviewer and camera in front of her. Since the release of her album months ago she's only done one interview to promote it. She ended up cancelling her promo run to all the radio stations and tv shows knowing they would be asking the same questions after the shooting and the multiple deaths in her life.
She's never been the type of artist to sell her trauma. She feels like Black people do that enough. Sure it would've gotten pity and maybe added to the sales of her album, but luckily she didn't need it. Her album still sold more than it was projected to in the first week and the singles are moving up the charts.
Usually Abella would be more friendly and bubbly during an interview, but she didn't want to do it in the first place. Not after the morning she had...
"Why the decision to make your second studio album an afrobeats album?" The interviewer asks causing Abella to look at her and come out of her thoughts.
"It's not an afrobeats album. All the singles I've put out are, but everything that's African music isn't afrobeats. There's Nigerian highlife, Fuji music, Jùjú music, palm wine music, reggae, Afro-Pop, and Afro-fusion on this album," She clarifies. "It's an ode to Africa, to my father. In my culture we're taught you are whatever your father is. He raised me to be culturally conscious and this album shows that."
"I have to ask why you're going on a European tour first? I was ready to whine my hips this summer at a show."
Abella chuckles. "People get upset when I say African music hasn't really broken the American market in a major way yet. Not like it has in Africa itself or the U.K. and Canada. The numbers don't lie. I went #1 with my album and singles in almost all African countries and the U.K. first, so that's where I'm going first. The American tour will be later this year."
"I feel African music's taking over. I hear it in the clubs and at parties."
"Most definitely, but to me they only know a few artists like Davido, Wizkid, and Burna Boy. Even then they're not household names. They know their songs, but not their face. I did this album because there's not really any American artists making African music who are big. They're all directly from Africa or the U.K. and based from there."
