What Is Afro House — And Why It's the Sound That's Taking Over Scottsdale Pool Decks

Apr 20

By Drew Smith (DJ Drewstyle)

The short version

Afro house is the genre you've heard and couldn't name. It's the sound that makes a pool deck feel like somewhere specific — not just background music, not a playlist, but a vibe with a pulse. Here's what it is, why it works in Scottsdale, and how I build sets around it live on Pioneer CDJ-3000s.

What Afro house actually is

Afro house is a branch of house music rooted in African rhythms and percussion. Where classic house is built around a four-on-the-floor kick and a Chicago warehouse energy, Afro house layers in polyrhythmic drums, call-and-response vocals, and a groove that sits lower in the body. It moves differently. It's hypnotic without being repetitive, energetic without being aggressive.

The genre has been building globally for the better part of a decade — driven by artists and labels out of South Africa, the UK, and Europe. In the last few years it's crossed into mainstream Afrobeats territory, into luxury hotel playlists, into high-end club culture internationally. In Scottsdale, it's still rare enough to be distinctive. That's the window.

Why it works here specifically

Scottsdale is a particular market. The pool culture is real — outdoor events, resort vibes, afternoon day parties where the energy needs to be present but not punishing. Afro house fits that environment better than almost anything else.

It's sophisticated without being cold. It moves people without demanding that they perform on a dance floor. It works at noon and it works at midnight. The tempo range — typically 120 to 126 BPM — is comfortable across a wide age and demographic range. You don't have to be a club kid to feel it.

I've watched it land at corporate pool events, private estate parties, and club residencies at Estelle. The reaction is the same across all three: people don't always know what they're hearing, but they don't want it to stop.

How I build sets live

I perform on Pioneer CDJ-3000s — the industry standard for professional club and event DJing. Everything I play is built in real time, not pre-programmed. That distinction matters more than it sounds.

A pre-programmed set is a recording with a live element. A truly live set is a continuous read of the room — what's landing, what's building, where the energy is going — and a response to it in real time. The CDJ-3000 is designed for that. The waveform display, the high-resolution jog wheels, the hardware reliability — it's the tool that lets you make decisions fast and execute them cleanly.

My typical set arc in an Afro house context:

Opening: Start deep. Minimal percussion, long loops, let the groove establish itself before you push it. The first 20 minutes are about trust — getting the room used to the sound before you ask anything of them.

Build: Start threading in more familiar elements. A vocal that cuts through. A bassline that locks in. This is where people start moving without deciding to. The groove catches them.

Peak: This is where the set earns its keep. Tracks with the most energy, the cleanest drops, the biggest crowd response. In an Afro house context, this doesn't mean the most chaotic — it means the most communal. The room is one thing for a few minutes. That's what you're building toward.

Resolution: Bring it back down intentionally. Don't let the peak collapse — guide it. A good close is as important as a good peak.

Where Afro house fits in an open-format set

Most events don't want two hours of pure Afro house. They want the energy and sophistication it brings woven into a wider set. That's where open-format comes in.

I'll move from Afro house into deep house into Afrobeats into hip hop into a throwback soul sample and back again — not randomly, but following the thread of groove and energy that connects all of them. The transitions are where the skill lives. The goal is that nobody notices the shift. They just feel the night moving.

For events where I do lean heavily into Afro house — pool parties, club nights, certain corporate events with the right crowd — the feedback is consistent. It elevates the experience without drawing attention to itself. It makes the space feel intentional.

Want this sound at your next event?

If you're planning a pool party, private event, or club night in Scottsdale and want something that actually sounds like somewhere — reach out.

Drew Smith