ALBUM REVIEW: Asake’s ‘Lungu Boy’ is a brilliant sonic shift

BY EMMANUEL DARALOYE

Last week, while on a long trip to Osogbo, Osun state capital, I played Asake’s last two albums, his last three released songs in 2024, in preparation for the release of ‘Lungu Boy‘.

Asake, a former dancer turned singer, fringe actor, and more grabbed everyone’s attention in 2022. However, the journey began more than a decade ago.

Asake’s sound is heavily oiled in Fuji music. It filters in into his sounds. The 2024 TikTok video of Fuji Vibe is just a snapshot of what will happen in the future.

‘Mr Money With The Vibe’ was an epilogue into his craft, while the polarizing ‘Work of Art’ raised the bar a little. Asake might have been unable to replicate his 2022 terrific run, but he remains in our faces, his strategic collaboration with Tems and Ayra Starr continues to make him a staple among music disciples.

In the late 2000s, Durella called himself ‘King of the Zanga’, an allusion to his Mushin roots. Nigeria is filled with Ghettos, artiste pays tribute to some of these ghettos. Asake reminds me of Durella when he calls himself ‘Lungu Boy’. Beyond being a tribute to his ghetto stories, it is also a way of reasserting his toughness, perseverance, and tenacity. Ten years of struggle before blowing up is not a joke.

He distills little of his stories in his music. While he is not a “dull” boy, he is also quick to tell “Agatha from Osapa” to get out of his house. That’s Ololade Asake, the dude who breathes Fuji, and marinates it in Afrobeats. 

The first vocal on his latest album comes from Asa on ‘Start’. By the time Asake’s vocals came up, he was gyrating, flirting with the beat, a beautiful rendition. The moody ‘MMM’ finds Asake and Wizkid bouncing it off. It is a retrospective tune, Wizkid delivering his finest guest verse since COVID-19.

In the last two years, Asake has found joy in log drums, and baseline. Amapiano continues to dominate his sound, and on this album, he takes a bow, moves away, and perhaps, finds Mr Money Sound as he claimed. The earlier teased Fuji Vibe is a dash between Alhaji Agba Fuji and Remi Aluko type of Fuji. The last sixty-second transition comes off well. Finally, Asake embraces his core element. With the years ahead of him, more Fuji experiments would come. He makes another fantastic attempt on ‘Ligali,’ and ‘Uhh Yeah’.

A cut from Adewale Ayuba gets interpolated on Asake’s new tune. ‘Active’ features US rapper Travis Scott.

Ayuba seems to take the shine on track six; while the song doesn’t wow me, I am forced to spin it again just to hear Ayuba’s interpolation. On ‘Wave’, the similarity of Asake and Central Cee’s come-up stories get channeled.

On this album, Asake is his own man. He wrote his songs himself without assistance from Olamide, his longtime producer. Magic Stick only produced two tracks. His new relationship with producers like Sarz and P-Prime seems to take him to a new sound frame. His is more calmer and reflective with the song almost sounding too religious at a time, almost every five lines were punctuated with submission or praise to the highest. I think this is what happens when an artiste has reached a new height of his career. Take, for instance, ‘Suru’ which featured Stormzy and ‘MMM’ are just distant cousins. Even when Asake sings about love in ‘My Heart’, he is less endearing and more authoritative. 

With a Grammy nomination already in the bag courtesy of his last album, Asake is aiming to try his luck for the award this time around, hence the reason he featured some of the finest artistes from the United States, United Kingdom and Brazil. If luck smiled on him, he might finally get it.

Core Asake’s fans might find it difficult to enjoy this album. This is a grand shift from how they perceived him. However, it should be expected that tracks like ‘Mentally,’ ‘Wave,’ and ‘Active,’ give off the old Asake. The filler track ‘Skating,’ makes you doubt Asake’s Lungu membership, where the ghetto boy seeks money for skating; a forgivable offense.