How two cultural foods sparked a dance party phenomenon

DETROIT – Looking for a space to celebrate Afro-Caribbean music and culture, some friends decided to throw a party in the basement of their college apartment.

Now the event has evolved and is selling out across Detroit and Ann Arbor and has expanded to include shows across the country as well as Canada and Africa. We chat to one of Jerk x Jollof’s co-founders, Brendan Asante, about the recipe for dance party success.

What is Jerk X Jollof for?

It is a hybridized Afro-Caribbean experience that combines the cuisine of the most central West African cuisines and Caribbean culture – Jollof rice and sour chicken – with a dance experience that surrounds the music of both cultures: Afrobeats, Dancehall, soca.

Jerk X Jollof started in 2016, how did it all come about and what was your inspiration?

In college, my friends and I said we should have a party where there was chicken and Jollof rice. Someone’s mother made Jollof. I got chicken from the Jamaican Jerk Pit in Ann Arbor. We did it in a basement and it was just this super sweaty dance party. We officially brought it back in 2016 at a clubhouse where we did two dates in Ann Arbor and then moved to Detroit. That’s when everything just took off running.

Ad

We started getting calls to do it elsewhere, so we expanded to cities like Toronto, Los Angeles, Miami for Art Basel, Chicago for All Star Weekend. We have one for New York Fashion Week coming up. We are working on finalizing a Euro tour. And Afrochella in Ghana is always our last party of the year.

How was the experience of building these events from scratch? Were there any challenges?

I was able to draw on my expertise in the show. I’m a singer and producer, and I went to the University of Michigan for jazz studies, so I was already able to get into venues and start booking that stuff.

I think the biggest challenge in the beginning was convincing countries that this is something they should try. When we were starting out, Afro-Caribbean music and culture was just starting to bubble up underground and people weren’t necessarily keen on the idea of ​​a whole night themed around that. But thankfully, the first Detroit venue was Marble Bar to take a chance on us. And gradually the party started to get bigger and we had to move to different places in Detroit.

Ad

Now you’re taking Jerk X Jollof around the globe. How is that experience going?

Our most recent international game was in Toronto for Canada Day and we sold out. It was our first time back since 2018 and people were like, “When are you coming back?”

Traveling with it is always really unique, because the moment you put it up for sale, you’re out of confidence. I make it a point, especially in a new city, to be there for the first hour at the door greeting people as they come in and thanking them for coming. This is perhaps the most rewarding aspect. Not only are you finding people far away from where you originally started who are just as excited about the experience you’re bringing to their city.

Do you think the time of Afrobeats popularity has helped Jerk X Jollof?

100% I think it was really weird that at the same time we did the basement party in college and turned it into the venue party in 2016, you had artists like Drake and Rihanna starting to talk to these artists in Nigeria through WizKid or Davido.

Ad

Just after ‘One Dance’ and ‘Controller’ came out, Wizkid dropped an album that put him on the map as ‘No, I’m one of these voices of Africa’. And then you have Burna Boy who was just here in Detroit and it was a wild moment for me because when I was younger I never would have thought that my culture would be celebrated enough to do something at the Aretha Franklin Amphitheater. So it’s been really interesting to see it spread into mainstream US culture. You have Ed Sheeran collaborating with these types of acts. Even Justin Bieber and J Balvin.

What do you hope people will take away from the events?

I want people to leave either more hungry for food, or make their own, or try other restaurants. But also sparking curiosity about sound and genre. I want them to walk away with a bunch of new songs and a playlist, or even afford a ticket to go to Ghana to party at Afrochella. I like this idea of ​​someone who is just much more familiar with something that they didn’t know. So whether it’s the music, it’s the food, or even the way people dress because people come really well dressed to our events just in different types of clothing.

Ad

The last Jerk X Jollof of the Summer will be on Saturday, August 6, 2022 at the Monroe Street Midway from 4 to 10 pm Admission is free with registration at JerkXJollof.com.