Music Journalist. Podcaster. Cultural Commentator.

Host and Creator of The Joey Akan Experience and Afrobeats Intelligence presented by OkayAfrica podcasts.

One of African music's most authoritative voices, and one of its sharpest critics.

Joey Akan has spent over a decade documenting Afrobeats from the inside, building the platforms, conversations and frameworks the industry now relies on to understand itself. Where most commentators trade in hype, Joey trades in numbers, systems and uncomfortable truths, making him a go-to source for media, brands, and institutions seeking truth over noise.

Over the years, he has become a multi-award-winning writer and music journalist, leading a team of creatives as the Music Editor of Pulse Nigeria for over five years. His insights have been featured in prominent publications such as The New York Times, The FADER, Quartz, The New Yorker, Mail & Guardian, DJBooth, Pulse, Guardian, OkayAfrica, Highsnobiety, CNN, and more.

Joey Akan is a Nigerian music journalist, broadcaster and cultural commentator whose work has helped define how Afrobeats is understood at home and abroad. He is the founder and host of Afrobeats Intelligence, the bi- weekly podcast presented by OkayAfrica, which has surpassed 3.5 million streams/downloads and reaches more than 26,000 newsletter subscribers with deep reporting on African music, its business, and its global ascent.

His reporting and essays have appeared in The New York Times, CNN, The FADER, Quartz, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Mail & Guardian, OkayAfrica, Highsnobiety and across leading African media. He has spoken at AfricaCom, Ake Arts and Book Festival, the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), Amsterdam Dance Event, Social Media Week Lagos, and Meta EMEA, among others.