The Creative Trips in Naarden: A Community Where Makers Lift Each Other Up

Omroep AfroNet visited the sixth edition of The Creative Trips, a community of artists, producers, videographers and dancers. Four creatives tell us how it all began in Paris, where it is headed and what Afrobeats is doing in the Netherlands right now.

Omroep AfroNet was a guest at the sixth edition of The Creative Trips in Naarden. It is a community where artists, producers, videographers, filmmakers and dancers come together to create and learn from one another. In the Omroep AfroNet report, we speak with four of them: a videographer who is part of the group's core, singer and songwriter Spuffy, musician Andrew and singer Kimmy Queen.

The atmosphere that day felt like a jam session. In the background, producers worked on new music while visitors talked about work, plans and ideals. According to the organizers, it was already busy that evening, and the next day was expected to be even busier.

From an Airbnb in Paris to a sixth edition

The Creative Trips has existed for about two years. The videographer, a Nigerian who has lived in the Netherlands for more than five years, says it all started when a friend invited him to make content together in Paris. An Airbnb was booked, and in the end four people went: two artists, a producer and the videographer himself. They didn't have a name yet, just the idea of making music and visuals together.

Andrew, who helped set up the group, says it began with something they felt was missing around them. Music was being made everywhere, but nobody was bringing the creators together. In Paris they met new artists, recorded music and brought it back home. Afterwards, they wanted to do it all over again.

The videographer explains that it isn't only about musicians. Anyone who makes something is welcome, from videographers to filmmakers and dancers. The audience also gets to see how a song comes to life, which, he says, creates a different bond with the artist. There isn't one fixed cameraman either: everyone has their own view of the event. All languages are welcome, including Surinamese and Papiamento alongside Dutch, English and Pidgin.

He still sees a gap in the Netherlands between people who grew up here and people who came from elsewhere. According to him, The Creative Trips wants to be a place where that gap doesn't matter.

Afrobeats: Is It Conquering the Netherlands?

Spuffy is a singer and songwriter who also writes songs for other artists. He mainly makes Afro R&B and Afropiano. He has been at every edition and calls himself the community's biggest supporter. In his view, you come to The Creative Trips to create, with an open mind.

When it comes to the place of Afrobeats in the Netherlands, he is firm. By his estimate, around eighty percent of clubs play the genre to draw a crowd. It remains difficult for emerging artists, mostly because of the language barrier. What counts, he says, is consistency. He says that as an artist from abroad you need time to break through here, step by step.

His favorite Afrobeats artist is Davido. For him it's not only about the music, but also about the person behind it. In the Netherlands, he names Afroapy and Jimmy Cotis as artists he listens to.

A new name and a system of his own

Andrew has been making music for about twenty years. He sings, raps, produces and directs, and he blends Afrobeats with hip-hop, dancehall and R&B. Until this year he was known as Vision. Now he is building a new catalog under a new name. Around December he wants to perform again. Music isn't his full-time job; he combines it with other work.

He has a clear ambition for The Creative Trips. Within five years, he wants to make the community as big as possible and connect it with other communities. The goal, he says, is for the group to be able to offer talent that they have helped shape themselves. A label of their own is a long-term goal, though he calls that "a conversation for another time." He wants to build structures so the idea becomes tangible.

Artist development, he says, already happens within the group. Anyone who has never recorded a song can turn to producers and other artists who help with writing and feedback. Members also support each other's events, such as the show Spuffy recently organized himself. Together they also released the song Rewind.

On the role of African music in the Netherlands, he says: "African music has a place everywhere." He arrived here in 2015 and was already hearing Afrobeats everywhere. Labels haven't reached out directly yet, he says, but he does see them watching closely. His advice to young creatives: find a community, because nobody makes it alone. On top of that, you need your own team and an entrepreneurial spirit.

Kimmy Queen: back to the music

Kimmy Queen started out in a gospel choir as a child and released two songs. After moving to the Netherlands, she took a two-year break. The jam session at The Creative Trips made her feel, as she puts it herself, the muscle memory coming back. She is now working on her first EP and studying alongside it.

Her music is R&B, pop and soul, and she is trying to combine it with Afrobeats. That is a challenge, she says, precisely because so little has been explored in that space. During our conversation, she sang a short freestyle on request. She draws her inspiration from Adele, Beyoncé and Erykah Badu. Singing runs in her family: her mother and sister sing, and her nine-year-old sister sings her songs better than she does, she says.

About her place in the Dutch music world, she says Black women are criticized more often and more harshly, including on social media. She asks for criticism that is constructive. Her message to other creative women is to keep creating and sharing, and not to let themselves be held back by people who never dared to try themselves. No performances are planned yet, but she regularly sings live on her TikTok.

Background

Over the past few years, Afrobeats has claimed a big place in the Netherlands. According to the NOS, Burna Boy was announced as the first African artist to headline and fill a stadium in the Netherlands, and the song Love Nwantiti by Ckay racked up more than 15 billion streams. The Nederlands Dagblad previously reported that the genre had grown by 550 percent on Spotify since 2017. At the same time, FunX music curator Spann points out, according to KRO-NCRV, that the term afrobeats is too broad a catch-all for many different styles from West Africa.

You can watch the full report in the Omroep AfroNet video. You can get in touch with the community via Instagram and TikTok under the name The Creative Trips.

Bronnen

• Omroep AfroNet op YouTube: de video
• NOS: Hoe afrobeats uitgroeit tot een van de populairste muziekgenres in Nederland
• Nederlands Dagblad: Afrobeats verovert Nederland
• KRO-NCRV Brandpunt+: Waarom je drie keer moet nadenken voordat je spreekt van 'afrobeats'