DARE to Redefine: Inside NoOx Worldwide’s Mission for Music and Social Change
Connecting Italy, Africa, and the Diaspora Through Sound and Solidarity
Background and Vision
• What inspired you to establish NoOx Worldwide, and how did your journey in the music industry begin?
NoOx was established organically within the community of creative people and professionals I had and have around. When I understood that what I was doing 24/7 was not only a passion, but a job and not music but a mission, I thought it was the right moment to “formalize” the project under a brand.
There were needs that are still to be answered and NoOx could support through music and its business to fill the gaps on its very humble dimension.
My career in the music industry started from my background: as a dancer, in the Hip Hop culture and Dancehall, Tap Dance, I could not miss the music side and lifestyle of them. Music was always at my side within the community and the activities I was engaged with (events, jams, festivals).
I have begun to study and I have graduated in Arts & Events Management, firstly ‘cos I wanted to know how to earn money as a dancer and secondly ‘cos I liked the cultural project management.
My own stage started by experimenting with Event and Artist management in the field of music and community engagement / social innovation back in 2017.
• Can you elaborate on NoOx Worldwide’s mission to bridge Italy, the Afro community, and Sub-Saharan Africa?
NoOx firstly understood that there were gaps in the Italian music industry, such as no representation of the Afro Community. Today NoOx is about the Afro Community, more over the Afro Urban sound and the New Generations’ ones.
With New Generation we intend all those people to feel part of the world, embracing diverse contexts, origins, communities and lifestyles.
Now, as the representation gaps are still a big problem, creating models by investing in new markets (such as the Afro Urban one), since 2018, supported opening up to more creativity and courage to create with diverse music moods and styles (not only the “I am black so I have to produce hip hop” or “I am Italo-italian and I have to sing melodic melancholic songs” kind of dynamics).
One of the missions, firstly, was to bridge back to the origin, so we started visiting Senegal, with F.U.L.A. (Senegalese-Italian artist) to recover roots, back in 2019.
After that, we understood that we might have worked with Senegal as a territory and music market to export from Senegal to the world.
So bridging cultures now means cross-culturals collaborations and intersections of point of views (contexts, origins, sounds, markets, people…):
working within the italian / European New generation’s music market
working within territories, creatives and professionals in Africa
working with a Worldwide network of creatives and professionals and connect them
bridging all of above
When bridging we have to keep in mind decolonization and de-stereotype of storytellings, the de-western centralization of what comes from Africa, the New Generations’ communities and the world.
That means working out fairness in music, such as mobility (visas, fundings, opportunities), intersectionality and valorization of cultures (songwriting, compositions, artists’ rights, intersectional line ups, biographies, creative directions…)
You see? Social innovation comes where music starts. For someone it is very easy to just make music and create a career (and internationalize it), for someone else, before making and selling music another job has to be done and it starts from the first layers of socio-political and cultural environment and systems.
So from Management only, NoOx became a label, a creative (and strategy) direction, a project management, a music consultancy, a platform, an innovative start up.
All in the name of music and community!
More: brochure NoOx // https://linktr.ee/noox_management
Afro Urban Music and Cultural Integration
• As a pioneer of the Afro Urban music market in Italy since 2018, what challenges and opportunities have you encountered in promoting this genre?
The first examples of Afro Urban sounds in Italy come from the first part of 2000 with the sound-systems and the dj sets by the seaside and in the squats/social centers, evolving to a more “commercial” approach in 2017 till now.
I remember when I was a teenager, jumping in squats/social centers’ parties and clubs, dancing to African urban music and observing that some artists were beginning to write and songwriting music in Italian on the same beats I was used to dance on, starting from Reggae and Dancehall sounds.
When I officially entered the music industry as an Artist manager, I found myself surrounded, naturally, by Afro-Italian artists and creatives, who as a community, were pushing and supporting each other. This was mainly happening in Milan, as the number 1 meeting point for the Italian music artists.
Tommy Kuti had just released Afroitalian through Universal Music and the community was feeling really inspired. This was a very first and shy attempt to what we call today the Afro Urban Italy.
Before the pandemic, with F.U.L.A., my very first Afro Urban artist in the roster, we decided to travel to Senegal to make the very first creative direction in Senegal of afro-italian songs. We came up with two videos who made a little part of history: Maldafrica, with an Afrotrap/ Coupe decaler spirit and Sabar, more Afrobeats sided.
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When the Covid came we thought that it could break the wave we were creating, but, actually, that left more space to create, network and build that bridge in between the diaspora and the origin continent, starting from Sub-Saharan Africa.
Just right at the end of the lockdown, which touched Italy in a very strong way, there were demonstrations for the Black Lives Matter movement (after the death of George Floyd) in Italy and many other topics concerning equality rights and immigration. That time expressed a very important moment for the development of Afro Urban music in Italy: the music of the artists was a proper anthem of that period, with LVDUP of Equipe54, for example.
A green flag of that was also Spotify that finally included some Afro Urban songs inside some editorial playlists such as New Music Friday (a kind of miracle!).
After that, gradually the vibes expanded and many artists, authors and composers started feeling they could go out of their comfort zone of the Hip Hop-ish/Urban sound and get into new vibes.
The interesting part, in my opinion, comes with the fact that new generations of Italians could express their origins, backgrounds and even international influences. Many artists, authors, composers and dancers, with no Afro/African origins are now vibing and experimenting on these new sounds.
It is not possible to talk about a stable Market yet, till the big Majors, through labels, booking, promoters and the whole powerful stakeholders system won’t fall for the amazing world of Afro Urban music. Development needs bulky investments from the top levels.
Although, lately, thanks to influences and good economical data coming from diverse markets and diaspora communities (UK, USA, FR), the Afro Urban sound arrived in Italy, intriguing and tickling the elitarian music industry, even tho it still seems very distracted (or not aware) of the international events that bring the A.U. to settle in pole position in charts and awards.
From Beyoncé to Black Panther, the Grammys and Coachella, the Afro Urban sound conquered features and co-creations, stages and runways, brands, radios, magazines and tv.
In Italy it is loud: the vibes of the Afro / African Diaspora, of the satellite communities, the natural and raw inclusion of diverse cultures, speaking in Italian, Wolof, Pidgin English, Yoruba, Patuah, Lingala (etc).
The audience exists and finally feels represented and wants to feel it more and more. It’s made of those that know and listen to international music. It’s that part of the audience free from the “pizza-spaghetti-mandolino” or “bananas-cabannes-tribal” kind of stereotypes.
An active, aware, cosmopolitan, Afro / African or not, fans of the expressions coming from the “black music” culture, dancers, high quality and diverse music lovers, its trends and their influencing powers through media.
The biggest communities in Italy have an African / Afro background and the inclusion of their influences in the society are naturally evolving together with immigration flows that enrich the native cultures by creating new crossovers.
Majors and big brand webzines are walking toward this “innovative” world, often without so much awareness, generalizing about a “genre probability influenced by ’RnB, or maybe Hip Hop (?)”, but it's “trendy-ish”. For example, as said before, the word “Afrobeat” has been used to refer to Afrobeats (see above), always ( or very suddenly) forgetting about that fateful “S”.
Small and medium realities, in diverse areas and roles of the music industry, profit and non, are borning as signs of change and desire of cooperation / coopetition, in the vision of reaching out the same and unique objective: regularize an expressive language that is still considerate as “diverse”.
To develop the market there is still a need of entrepreneurs that invest in the Afro Urban market and in its entertainment world around.
Research and development, constant growth and concretization of the international network, quality and awareness, international collaborations & placements (sync, brands…), export and internationalization (and the “S” in Afrobeats): these are the ingredients to conquer the italian and the international industry, in a non stereotyped, equal and inclusive way.
To name some of the Afro Urban Artists in Italy developing the style and the trends around it: Tommy Kuti, Slim Gong, Roy Raheem, l’Equipe54, Epoque, Abe Kayn, Mustik, Wade, Jeezus, Wado, Em, Heartman, F.U.L.A., Yves the Male Chantal and also Ghali, Rhove and many more.
Listen to the Spotify playlist “AFRO URBAN ITALY” promoting almost all the old and new discoveries.
• How does NoOx Worldwide work to represent Africa and its diaspora (and the new generations) beyond stereotypes, and what strategies do you employ to promote diverse sounds and cultures?
We work within the very deep side of project management (strategy and creative direction) working out strategies, communication and networking.
It is important who works behind the strategy and production and the creative idea, they might have the same vision such as the networking we want to collaborate with.
It is also important to work on breaking stereotypes starting from SELF DEFINITION and SELF DETERMINATION of music genres (I prefer talking about styles tho), explaining context to the other part we are negotiating with (as they might not know the diverse context in terms of market and approaches, for example). We work on lyrics and the freedom of writing in whatever language represents the artist (could be hybrid languages, for example Italian and Wolof, only Wolof or plural languages to valorize the plurality of identities).
If we want to open up a market we need to be part of the system but not compromising to it: we need the system to adapt to us starting from storytelling about us and not pointing fingers against it. It is a sort of cultural mediation that has to be done first. Also, avoiding opportunities of false communication is important and protection on behalf of artists’ rights.
Project management delves into diverse dynamics and initiatives, depending if the project has to be activated in Italy, another country in Europe or Senegal or Mozambique or whichever other country in Africa. The project has to focus on points of view in terms of perspectives, markets, approaches to the market, audiences, history, languages, etc.
For example we started a project in Mozambique, together with cultural hubs and creative arts university in which we are involved in a capacity building on a general music industry essentials first part and we specialize it to the local market (in the second part), together with creatives and executives from that market and we analyze it. After that, we understand how we could develop and eventually internationalize that same market from a worldwide perspective. The tendency is to “adapt” products to the other markets, de-valorizing their unicity and it is an obvious negative effect from the western centralized vision of the music market.
So that we need to redefine on a self perspective things such as: strategies, biographies, music styles, pitches, terminologies, data to showcase.
Another example to stress the importance of right partnerships:
we need to be able to self define music styles and other metadata (i.g. languages, country of origin) while distributing our music digitally on platforms to be included in the right playlists (if they exist) and to be listened to by the right audience (over-passing the algorithm). The choice of the right Digital Distributor will help out with data inputs and de-colonizing from a technical and promotional perspective.
The choice of a ‘good’, mentally and practically decolonized/deconstructed manager/producer/label/booker/etc will support in the promotion and valorization of the specific artist internationally, giving a coherent and upright representation of the artist and his/her career.
In a few words: we have to work on contexts and self determination, its valorization and positive impact - this is social innovation in music.
FIND OUT MORE:
AFRO URBAN MUSIC in Italy
The Afro Urban Italian sound, market, innovation through music, new approaches and languages.
AFRO URBAN is a term used to identify a specific music and style attitude, the Urban one, united with sounds, languages, lifestyles, symbolisms from the Afro descendant and African origin world.
In 2023 we, the young and innovative executives of the music industry, do not talk about (at least we should not) music “genres”. Creating music genres definitions would sound reductive, especially in musicology and in the music industry.
Better would be talking about music styles, giving space to mingles and fusions in between attitudes, origins, sounds, expressive languages and cross-cultural dialogues (and “crossovers”).
The “ethno-musicology”, differently from what was said before, declined the catalog of music in three diverse areas: “Traditional”, “Popular” and “Folk”. Later on, the class of “World Music” was added (taking it from Peter Gabriel’s Womad).
“Traditional” is meant for the written tradition music (the western classic music, the opera…); “Popular” stands for “pop” music (and the big funnel including both HipHop and Rock, for instance); “Folk” is the music linked to folkloristic traditions, shared orally (for example the Pizzica).
“World music” has its own meaning in the word “the music from the world”, and so all that music that could be Pop, Rock, Hip Hop, Folk, etc. but coming from “the other side and rest of the world” concerning a western centric vision of it.
I, as an innovative executive, dislike the ethnomusicological tone of voice and terms as it deforms, categorizes, defines and limits the artists in a sole and western-centric vision of market and music culture.
Going back to the term “Afro Urban”, in my humble opinion, could strongly embrace and largely include specific attitudes and choices (in terms of music and style). For example: the Afrobeats (with the “S”, as Afrobeat stands for a diverse music style), Amapiano, Afropop, Gqom, Wolof Beat / Mbalax Drill, Afro Rave, Coupé Décalé etc.
It is quite easy to find people who still use the terminology “World music”, especially “old” white guys in the industry, and many who don't. Ok, many artists through their creations are from the world but that original world has peculiarities and specifics, that can be Afropop, Afro Experimental Jazz, Afro Soul, Afro House, etc…So: why generalizing that much as “anything that has not Western origin is world music”?
Also, it is kind of generical to include all kinds of music coming from the Afro Urban artists under the umbrella-term “Afrobeats”, as not all of them practice (just) “Afrobeats”.
Projects and Initiatives
• Could you share insights into the “DARE: to take that first step” documentary and community event? What impact do you hope to achieve through this project?
DARE is not only a Documentary but a Community Event… and this came as much organically as possible.
With the DARE team we understood that the message of DARING was touching and impacting on the audience that always have liked to share what dare means to them.
That proactive participation made us develop a concept of community event in terms of engagement and impact of intersectionality diverse audiences through diverse activities, linked to music and the creative cross-sectors such as the audiovisual, concerts and performances, dance and cyphers, open mics and networking, dj sets, food ‘to be discovered’…
The response is very positive, active and the audience is very diverse (from babies to old people, new generations and backgrounds, origins…).
With DARE we want to spread a message of “no matter what - you can take that first step to change the things around you, to dare to be yourself, there’s people around you that think exactly the same”. And the very amazing outcome was that the need for everyone (from the old white lady to the new-arrived-Senegalese 17 years old boy) was the same “to be free”, “to change things”, “to be themselves”.
DARE unifies and breaks down barriers, organically, showcasing human stories where music is the main character and tool for a social innovation. DARE is a Manifesto.
• NoOx Worldwide has been involved in various cross-cultural projects, such as the Music Hackathon in Mozambique. Can you discuss the objectives and outcomes of these initiatives?
NoOx has been involved in various initiatives in Mozambique thanks to AGAPE ETS and their project “Building with music” which aims to develop the creative-music ecosystem and valorize the cultural heritage through music and its people, jobs, artcrafts, communities. The uniqueness of this project is that the Ministry of Culture in Mozambique is the main partner. This gives a relevant stress on actions required to the development of the music ecosystem and its industry, on a local and international levels.
We managed:
music business capacity buildings addressed to musicians, artists, managers, professors within the cultural hubs in the capital Maputo, the regional ones and the University.
the Music Hackathon: the creative and strategic direction, the production and the international partnerships. The Hackathon selects and unifies diverse participants from the Mozambican creative industries (including artists, entrepreneurs, tech people, designers…) which have to work on a main topic problematic and solve it through their innovative solutions that each group will present to an institutional jury. For the first edition 3 projects were incubated and the winner had the chance to travel at the milano Music Week’s Linecheck Festival 2024 and join the Music Tech Academy’s workshops and incubation. Also, as some members of the winning group were artists/djs, they have been selected to showcase a b2b afro house and afro tech dj set in Milano (Double Drop, Yuss, Granda Beats). That was only the beginning of a bigger collaboration with local artists and a festival that is now happening.
We are now working on the second edition happening in August 2025.
Industry Recognition and Personal Achievements
• You’ve been recognized as a 2022 Keychange Innovator and a 2022 Genova Global Goals Awards Winner. How have these accolades influenced your work and vision for the future?
I can say that Keychange was over the top as it supported me in various ways: mobility, networking and recognition within the European / Global Music industry. These are the most influential elements for my job. Being able to be physically around and recognized could give me more experience and notoriety to speak up our mission and vision.
Capacity buildings and opportunities, such as mentoring are very important as they help out as they create a constructive comparison and growth. Being in touch with an international community supports the exercise of “wearing” diverse points of view out. Also it helps to spread the world of your job on a wider audience and higher level.
Comparing with alike-people through equal and fair approaches, made me feel part of a bigger music community (a proper ecosystem) and more powerful of keeping up with my/our project, evolving with it and creating bigger goals including internationality.
• As a social innovator focusing on inclusion and decolonization of storytelling, how do you approach these themes in your projects and collaborations?
As said before, I am more and more interested in finding similar mindsets to partner with. I also love to support evolving different mindsets and deconstruct them through my job (I like entering the matrix and bugging it lols).
Collaboration or coop-etition are my only approaches, as I don’t need to be the only one earning but my focus is on impacting to create a common growth (economically and culturally).
I am not a non-for-profit person, but my last mission is not money but careers, rights and fairness within a diverse and intersectional ecosystem.
I had to say no to many collaborations that were selling out the concept of inclusion, immigration and the whole politically correct world. We are here to make music and my artists are there to be artists with no specific responsibilities on changing the world. Only the promotion of them could actually change a small part of the world, not selling out their origins or dramatical biographies that press want to post, for example.
I approach de-stereotypes by deconstructing models within the same communities with the local communities (it is not from me, I learn within the process)
Let’s give two examples: all the music from Africa, for the majority, is now generalized defined as “Afrobeat” while saying that we forget about many other styles that are not afrobeat.
While talking about African Music at Grammy Awards we could notice that the most of the African artists featured in USA playlists are from Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa (forgetting the whole meaning of a Continent) and envisioning that, means that these clusters of artists mostly song write in English or hybrid forms of English (“ex” colony language tho) which is more marketable in US and UK (also thanks to the audience of the diaspora or communities living these countries). It is a bit sad that the industry closes up to diversity and stands on [generalizations] negatively impacting on independent and local artists, which anyway are more than the major ones.
Future Directions
• What are your plans for NoOx Worldwide, and how do you envision the company’s role in the evolving global music landscape?
NoOx goal is to let music play forever - on a fair level, envisioning an universal and intersectional audience of a new generation open to cross-cultural elements.
I wish that one day we will not talk about social innovation as the goals will be reached and we will just make music.
I believe NoOx will work physically with as many territories as possible, not only in Africa but Worldwide and that the meeting of diverse communities could create new music styles and opportunities. International cooperation to break barriers and create solutions.
I believe that, thanks to a part of our job, the Italian music market and majors will invest in the new generations, the present with an innovative mindset.
The goal is also to bring back music to people and communities and let the new generations to redefine the music markets models.
• How can the music industry better support and promote diversity and inclusion, based on your experiences and insights?
Investing in new generations in terms of artists, creatives, executives and audiences; opening to diverse sounds, rhythms and lyrics / languages; analyzing the reality from the audience point of view to really represent their needs; becoming more and more collaborative locally and internationally.
Connect with NoOx Worldwide: