FEATURE:
Spotlight
Asake
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AN artists I am a little late to…
the incredible Asake released his second studio album, Work of Art, on 14th June. Following on from 2022’s acclaimed debut, Mr. Money with the Vibe, I know there is a lot of love for him in the U.K. He (Nigerian-born Ahmed Ololade) holds a lot of respect for this country. I will end the feature with a review for the fantastic Work of Art. Prior to that, I want to get to a couple of interviews and news pieces. Before that, here is some biography concerning a titanic talent who is primed for worldwide domination:
“Asake, otherwise known as MR MONEY is an Afro-pop and Afrobeat musician from Nigeria. He was born Ahmed Ololade, in the late 1990s and brought up by Yoruba parents in Lagos, Nigeria. He is a singer and songwriter.
He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the Department of Theatre and Performing Arts at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun State.
He rose to prominence in 2020 after his freestyle “Lady” went viral, eliciting a tremendous response from several prominent internet influencers such as Broda Shaggi, Sydney Talker, NastyBlaq, and others.
His foray into music was entirely coincidental since he began as a dancer and worked with a variety of dance organizations and theatre companies in high school before attempting his hand at music.
‘’Mr Money,’’ his first song for 2020, re-emphasizes his confidence in himself and being loyal to his identity as he makes his mark as one of the fast-rising artists in the Nigerian music scene.
His hard work and perseverance earned him a nomination in three categories for the 2020 City People Music Awards, for which he received two of the three nominations, including the title of Most Popular Song of the Year.
Asake has also been on some of the year’s most anticipated tracks, including ‘’Star’’ by Broda Shaggi and DJ Xclusive’s ‘’Gegeti.’’ He collaborated with Afrobeats powerhouse Peruzzi and Zlatan on the remix for his 2020 smash track “Mr. Money”.
A tremendous artist who has had this sharp rise and really captured the attentions of a wide and passionate fanbase, his deployment of up-tempo Afro and Amapiano-styled production, combined with his singing in Yoruba and the use of slang in his songs, has really made a big impression. SSENSE featured and interviewed Asake earlier this year in London. Here is someone very much ready for the next level of his career. Work of Art confirms him as someone everybody needs on their musical radar:
“We have to go outside first,” the 28-year-old artist commands, removing his black leather Givenchy hat. He appears relaxed but adamant, and his russet-colored eyes shine in the dimly lit belly of the house. Outside the temperature is below zero and there are traces of days-old snow settled around the building. Born Ahmed Ololade in Lagos, he’s experiencing his first British winter—and the country at large. “I’ll have to come back in the summer next time,” he says later on, laughing.
After selling out his inaugural London date in minutes, Asake announced two additional shows. After all, hits like “Terminator,” “PALAZZO,” and “Peace Be Unto You” conquered the city’s nightlife, building anticipation for his arrival. The popularity of Afrobeats is nothing new in Britain; it's the result of over a decade of communal efforts by the West African diaspora in the region to celebrate and boldly claim their countries' cultural exports, especially music. Quintessential releases like D’Banj’s “Oliver Twist” in 2013, and Yemi Alade’s “Johnny” and Fuse ODG’s “Antenna,” both in 2014, graced university rave circuits and paved the way for the next generation of Black British musical experiences. It’s this audience that helped welcome early appearances from Wizkid, Afro B, Burna Boy, Maleek Berry, Mr Eazi, and Tiwa Savage across the region.
PHOTO CREDIT: Kenny Germé
“I love the people here. I love the energy they have here,” Asake says, grateful for his ballooning global audience. “The people understand the music, what’s going on. It’s good to see.”
Asake’s debut album, Mr. Money With the Vibe, set a record upon its release last September, becoming the highest charting Nigerian debut album of all-time, when it hit No. 66 on the Billboard 200. His single “Joha” has tens of millions of streams across platforms. The numbers prove that he’s one of Afrobeats’ rising stars, his etched innings becoming more entrenched by the day. The album’s effortless amalgamation of amapiano, fuji, hip-hop, jazz, and gospel exemplifies this generation’s proclivity for genre melding. Its instinctive infusion of burgeoning sounds—already popular on the continent—and mainstays demonstrate prowess and taste that transcends generations. Mr. Money With the Vibe is successful because it is equal parts heritage and contemporary vigor. Tracks like “Joha” and “Sunmomi” strut across sticky dance floors, announcing the world's musical future, while “Ototo” relies on the legacies of Afrobeats, jazz, and classical sounds.
PHOTO CREDIT: Kenny Germé
Despite being an emergent face in Western purviews, Asake has been a creator and artist for years, fervently working on his craft. His manager, Stephen Nana, has been working with Asake since February and he’s quick to point out his ability to work under any conditions. He’s seen him through both his signing to Olamide’s YBNL independent imprint—also home to trailblazer Fireboy DML—to his larger, international signing to EMPIRE, which was announced at the top of last summer. According to Nana, Asake’s “always been ready” for the success—he just needed the visibility and platforms.
“If there’s anything you can say about Asake, he’s a sucker for recording,” Nana says. “We’ve been in London for two weeks and he’s recorded three songs. That’s someone who has hit songs, someone who should chill.”
From EP to debut album in less than 12 months, Asake is an embodiment of the contemporary musical ecosystem, where a steady flow of content is the expectation. Both his EP Ololade Asake—the singer’s first release upon signing to YBNL—and Mr. Money With the Vibe show a determination to embody what he believes he was destined for. On “Trabaye,” the opening song on the EP, Asake proclaims that it’s “time to show the world'' what he’s all about. The focus on his journey continues on “Nzaza,” from Mr. Money, where he pleads with God to allow him to home in on his grind”.
Prior to coming to a review of Work of Art, there are a couple more things I want to drop in. I think that everybody should get involved with his music. If it doesn’t sound like your thing, I would implore you to do some more digging and dedicate some time to it. It has a knack of getting under your skin, inside your heart and staying in the heart. I want to take things back a bit. This article documented Asake’s responses in a 2022 interview for Hip TV. Among other subjects covered, he was asked about the challenges he encounters as this rapid-rising voice in music:
“I think now I don't know the differences between eye service and people that are not doing eye service because now everybody loves me, to an extent. Like everybody in my house, my friends, everybody loves me. Gateman loves me. Driver loves me. If I move on the road, everybody loves me. Before I can tell when person no love me because they'll be blunt. Now everybody just loves me so I don't know. I don't even know person wey no love me. I don't know anything again. If I open my Instagram like this, love. My Snapchat, love. Even to people that used to tell me before "bro your pimples", the pimples come sexy to everybody now. My stature before, people go tell me say "bro, your stature." Now everything is just perfect. If I wear green on yellow on brown, za! Dope! I just dope for everybody eye now.
Then he was asked, "How do you plan to remain relevant?" to which he said:
Number one is I have to be humble. I hear that a lot. People that don't know me feel like I'm proud because of my name, because they call me Mr. Money and because of how I carry myself. A lot of people see it as "that one, him proud." So I think I need to be more humble to people. I don't need to prove that point though. If you see me say I proud, take it like that. When you meet me, you'll know the kind of person I am. And if you see me say I humble at the same time, gracias, God bless you. I just need to stay calm. Everything still goes to being focused.
I want people to know me as that good guy, that not too perfect guy, but everything I'm doing is awesome. For someone that like put ghetto in their brain. Like no matter anything I be, no matter the luxury car I get, no matter the dope houses I have, I still have to like let people on the street know you can make it. You can actually make it. There are so many good talents in the ghetto”.
One more thing needs covering off before I get to a hugely positive review for Work of Art. There is always criticism against some artists who speak in their native tongue or not in the English language. How translatable and understandable it is for audiences. If it is a relative obscure or unknown dialect, it can be even more alienating for some. It is always important for artists to be true to their roots and heritage. That is no different when it comes to Asake! As we read here, he has had to respond to constant criticism about the language he speaks in:
“Nigerian singer, Ahmed Ololade, popularly known as Asake, has responded to critics who have continued to drag him for always singing most of his songs in Yoruba language, saying it was simply his choice.
The singer has come under criticism from some of his fans, who warned that he would continue to miss out on international awards and recognitions if he refused to switch from singing mostly in Yoruba to a more universally acceptable language such as English.
But Asake, who is signed to Olamide’s YBNL records, seems to be following in the footsteps of his boss, Olamide, who also sings and raps mostly in Yoruba language.
Olamide had insisted that he was not moved by international collaborations and awards, hence his reason to stick to what works for him as a musician.
While speaking about why he sings in his Yoruba language, ‘Mr Money With The Vibe’ crooner said he sings mostly in his language because it is so important to him and many people understand it.
Asake disclosed this in an interview with ABC News and monitored by R on Friday.
He explained that listeners don’t really need to understand the language before enjoying the music.
He said, “Yoruba is so important to me and there are a lot of people that understand it. And to me, the way I understand music is like it’s a feeling; sometimes you don’t even need to understand the language to enjoy the music.
I am reading a lot of love out there for Asake’s second studio album, Work of Art. His most confident and compelling release to date, he has won a load of new fans! This is someone that is impossible to ignore. The Guardian were among those to show love for one of the best albums of 2023. If you are fairly fresh to Asake such as me, then you do need to check out his new album. It is a very personal yet accessible statement:
“It’s a shift reflected in the very appearance of Work of Art: while Mr Money With the Vibe arrived with a cover photo that looked not unlike a police mugshot – albeit a police mugshot in which Asake was smiling broadly, the better to reveal his grills – Work of Art bears a photo of the singer with the same slightly goofy grin, but clad in a pinstripe suit, surrounded by paintings, one of them apparently a self-portrait somewhat in the style of Picasso.
It fetches up less than a year after his debut. A man who appeared on nine singles over the course of 2022, Asake is nothing if not productive, clearly a believer in the theory that you need a constant torrent of new material to maintain your position in an overcrowded market and a world of short attention spans. Perhaps the speed and urgency with which he makes music accounts for the fact that Work of Art doesn’t shift dramatically away from the blueprint laid out on Mr Money With the Vibe: “log drum” bass and soft, deep house-y synths derived from South African amapiano; choral backing vocals that recall a softer variant of the call-and-response approach of Yoruba fuji, the latter genre’s influence particularly pronounced on the closing Yoga; lyrics in which hip-hop slang (“shawty”, “jiggy”, “cheddar”, “beefing”, “bitches on my right side”) leaps out from the lines in Asake’s native tongue, and Nigerian brand names (not least that of the synthetic cannabinoid Colorado) mingle with Louis Vuitton and Gucci; no lead vocal allowed out before first being lightly dressed with Auto-Tune.
Or perhaps Asake is disinclined to fix something that isn’t broken, and not merely on account of his last album’s success: the constituent elements still amount to a beguilingly lovely sound, summery and appealing.
PHOTO CREDIT: Walter Banks
Certainly, it doesn’t sound like an album that has been hastily thrown together. The production is beautifully done: the moment on 2:30 when the bassline slips into a stammering pattern that underlines the rhythm of Asake’s vocal, and the delicate snare rolls that punctuate the beat of Sunshine, are small things but they suggest a pleasingly keen attention to detail. It’s also more texturally rich than a rush-job would be, the palette of supporting sounds broad enough to encompass everything from a country-ish fiddle weaving through Mogbe to dancehall-influenced interjections to the rather Dire Straits-evoking guitar that opens Sunshine.
“I wonder, I wonder, American wonder,” he keeps repeating on Awodi, not the only sign on Work of Art that, Yoruba lyrics or not, Asake is taken with western pop success. There may be a song here called Lonely at the Top, but the lyrics suggest a man unbothered by fame’s alienating effect and eager for greater celebrity.
Sunshine, meanwhile, steals its hook from the Lighthouse Family’s 1995 smash Ocean Drive. You could view that as glomming on to British and American pop’s trend for the instant sugar-rush brought on by borrowing from immediately recognisable 90s and 00s hits, but in truth, Asake’s songwriting doesn’t need added novelty value. Every song on Work of Art is melodically really strong and so effortlessly commercial-sounding that it’s hard to pick out future singles, although the building chorus of I Believe is a striking earworm.
Like all second albums that offer only minor adjustments to a debut, Work of Art leaves you wondering a little about what the future holds. But such thoughts are easy to dispel during the half-hour it plays for: you’re too busy enjoying yourself to worry, which suggests Asake’s rise is unstoppable”.
MR. MONEY is creating music that is transcending language and genre barriers. Like innovative and instinctive artists, he knows how to make his music sound fresh yet relatable. There is a familiarity that sits alongside a singular and very distinct sound. If you are unaware of Asake, it is a perfect opportunity to acquaint yourself with someone who is going to go a very long way! After only his second album, he has won the music industry’s heart. He will not stop here. He is ambitious and hungry. With that talent and passion, there are few that will deny him! The wonderful Asake is…
A music sensation.
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