{"id":75261,"date":"2021-03-18T16:20:43","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T15:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/?p=75261"},"modified":"2021-08-12T12:22:03","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T10:22:03","slug":"osunlade-the-godfather-of-afro-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/osunlade-the-godfather-of-afro-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Osunlade, the godfather of Afro house"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With a career that spans four decades, Osunlade has become nothing short of a legend in the house music scene. Originally from Saint-Louis, Missouri, he started creating music early, having taught himself to play piano, drums, bass and guitar by the time he was a teenager. His professional career began in earnest in the late eighties, when he moved to Los Angeles as a producer for other artists. While the decade he spent on the West Coast was crowned with many commercial successes, he grew increasingly unhappy with the industry and its toxic practices. To maintain his passion for music, Osunlade left the business and took a two-year break. This marked the start of a spiritual journey that led him to Ifa, an ancestral religion that originates in Yoruba culture from present-day Nigeria, widely practiced in West Africa and among diasporic communities in the Americas. It also triggered a move to New York and enabled him to achieve the dream of founding his own label, Yoruba Records<\/a>, as a place to release his own organic, vulnerable and mellow brand of music and introduce new talent to the world. With 20 albums and countless singles to his name \u2013 including collaborations with the likes of Salif Keita<\/a> and Cesaria Evora<\/a> to name a few \u2013 he is one of the most prolific artists in the game. Beyond his production and label work, Osunlade has also become a revered deejay who performed at leading venues the world over. In many ways, he is an artist who\u2019s seen it all, and yet his music remains as fresh and soulful as ever. We are blessed to connect with the man \u2013 comfortably dressed in his robe, hanging out in a park with his dog \u2013 ahead of his headlining  at the Offering Gotsoul Online Weekender<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While your music defies the concept of genre, you\u2019re widely considered one of the founding fathers of \u201cAfro house\u201d. Is this a legacy you recognize and identify with? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely. And in fact, I love where it\u2019s gone, too, with so many kids who are doing incredible things. I love seeing this creativity and listening to new music thinking to myself \u201cI would have never done that!\u201d. So yes, I recognize it, much in the same way that I recognize my own forefathers. People like Ron Trent, Joe Claussell, Louie Vega, and all those guys I looked up to when I was starting. It\u2019s all a continuum. This said, I don\u2019t feel a sense of responsibility with this legacy. My creative responsibility is limited to myself in keeping the integrity of my music. I think it\u2019s more important for me to do my own thing and hopefully this will challenge others to keep pushing beyond what they know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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