Adekunle Gold: How I trekked long distance in Lagos to sell my CDs

Adekunle Gold, the Afro-pop singer, has recalled how he trekked from “Maryland to Ikeja” to promote his songs’ compact disc (CDs) to commuters in Lagos. 

In a newsletter on Friday — along with his latest album — Gold recounted some of his early struggles in the music industry.

Gold said he teamed up with one of his friends “to raise N150,000 together to shoot our first music video in 2010″. 

“As I was reflecting, I noticed a young boy leading the church choir. I remember fighting so hard to lead the choir at Doers of the Word and never getting that spot but look at me today. It was not until my parents moved us from Ifako Ijaiye to Ikotun and I met my best friend Michael that people really started paying attention to my musical ability,” the letter reads in part.  

“Michael was a keyboardist in his church and so we connected and decided to form a band called ‘Another Root of Jesse’ which later became ‘Heavenward’ then ‘The Bridge’. Michael was always the more of the producer and I was the writer but we both sang.

“Then Michael got a job at Dana airline, I was still broke but I added my own 2 kobo. We gathered 150,000 Naira together to shoot our first music video in 2010. We put every single dime we made into music, we even moved to a ‘boys quarter’ in Lekki in 2011 to feel among and chase this music dream. 

“I remember walking from Maryland to Ikeja to give out our CDs in traffic, we really pushed and pushed because we both knew we had something in us that the world needed to hear.

“Fast forward to today Michael and I are still inseparable, traveling the world together and performing in front of thousands of people. Michael produces all my live shows, that High EDM remix I’ve been performing at festivals this year, Michael created it, Michael produced some songs on this album and worked on almost all of the songs you are listening to right now, he’s a genius and my story would probably be different without him.”