From Lagos to London and elsewhere, Ahmed Ololade aka Asake, has become the rave of the moment. He wowed audiences in the US last September with his debut album Mr. Money With the Vibes, described as both a critical and commercial success. His fan base is increasing in equal measure making THEWILL zero in on him as one of the most popular figures in the entertainment industry in Nigeria today. Michael Jimoh writes.
Ten days before last Christmas in faraway O2 Brixton Academy in the south of London, thousands of paying guests settled in their seats to watch a musician perform. With nearly 5, 000 capacity and having hosted dozens of rock stars in the past, there were as many people outside trying to barge in at O2 on December 15, to sort of gate crash. Many of them had no tickets or couldn’t afford to buy one because the concert was already sold out. They became uncontrollable because there was a crush of those who wanted in. They failed and thus began the resulting free-for-all. By the time the Bobbies arrived to restore order, eight people had been wounded, some in critical condition, all of them hospitalised. A woman was reported dead in the crush.
Was the crowd there to see a travelling be-jeweled, tattooed rock band from Seattle, say, Indiana? Certainly not! Were they staking out their money on an over famous dreadlocked reggae artiste from Kingston in Jamaica? Again, no. The musician they had all come to watch in performance, that some of them had travelled from afar to see live on stage is a 27-year-old Nigerian, Ahmed Ololade aka Asake. Impossible right? Or na lie, as we tend to dismiss things we think are almost impossible in Nigeria. But facts are facts, as London newspapers reported the following day. After the rumpus at O2, the Culture / Music writer for Standard, Elizabeth Gregory, wondered in her piece: “Who is Asake?” She provided the answer herself. “The Nigerian singer-songwriter who sold out the O2 Brixton Academy in minutes.”
Another writer for The Guardian of London, Shaad D’Souza, has called Asake “one of 2022’s breakout acts,” musically that is. The previous September, Asake represented himself at the 15th Annual Headies Award in Atlanta, Georgia. For a musician his age, exposure in the US is a plus. The O2 Academy concert was to broaden that exposure. Apparently, Asake’s fame had preceded him across the Atlantic thus the crush at O2 Brixton Academy.
Asake’s Mr. Money With the Vibes has been described as “the highest-charting Nigerian album of all time on the US charts. It was named by Rolling Stone, The Fader and the New York Times as one of the year’s best records, with the NYT’s Jon Caramanica, describing the album as “enveloping and inspirational, mellow but assured.” The album was No 22 on the UK album charts when it came out in September. Before the O2 concert, however, Asake had performed in Birmingham where he was booed because he got on stage late. The money man silenced them not with a soporific song but money he shared to those in the front row. The audience at O2 never had any such opportunity of sharing the singer’s largesse. People were hurt instead. “They said outside is f****d already,” Asake announced right on stage when news filtered in that there was pandemonium outside. “So we have to end the show. I don’t know why. It’s not me.”
Asake later said in a statement shared widely on Instagram. “My heart is with those who were injured last night and caused any form of discomfort. I pray you get well soonest. I am also in the process of reaching out to individuals.”
“After years of being part of Nigeria’s underground Afrobeats scene in the past 12 months,” D’Souza wrote in The Guardian, “the 27-year-old Lagos-based singer has collaborated with Burna Boy and released his debut album, Mr. Money With the Vibe, to widespread critical and commercial success.” Born on January 13, 1995 as Ahmed Ololade to parents living and working in Lagos, Asake became his adopted stage sobriquet via his mother’s maiden name. He claimed in one interview that he grew up in a place in Lagos “considered dangerous, a neighbourhood where everyone wakes up to hustle for their daily meals. It taught me how to survive in good times and bad times. So, I draw inspiration from my real life experiences to encourage everyone who thinks their present reality is constant; I want them to always remember that there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
It is light at the end of the tunnel for the rising star among a constellation of Nigerian artistes at the moment. In a poll conducted by Premium Times late December, Asake was number one, topping the likes of Kizz Daniel, Burna Boy and, wait for it, Wizkid. The reason the online publication gave for their choice couldn’t have been more correct.
“It is undeniable that YBNL’s signee Ahmed Ololade popularly known as Asake dominated the radio waves and became an Internet sensation with his back-to-back hits this year,” the publication commented. “The breakout star came hot with a different style and backup choristers you won’t deny hearing. With his new class, he released hot tracks, including “Sungba,” “Peace Be Unto You” and “Terminator” at the beginning of the year.” The tunnel will most certainly get brighter for Asake if he wins Radio 1’s Sound of 2023 artists for which he has been long listed. He already has one in the kitty – Audiomack’s 2022 Artiste of the year, made evidently possible with Asake’s more than 350 million music streams and over 2 million followers on Instagram.
When the editor of THEWILL sent a message that the newspaper had put down Asake’s name as the Entertainer of 2022, we immediately went to town asking youngsters who was the rave of the moment between Asake and Kizz Daniel. The newspaper met and spoke with two siblings, Idris, 25, and Yetunde, 22, a Food Technology student in one of the polytechnics in Ogun state. With the enthusiasm of any youngster mooning on and on about a favourite star, Yetunde began by telling the reporter that Asake was certainly more popular now. She then proceeded to play half a dozen numbers from her I-phone, some of which she sang along to pretty easily like something she’d listened to over and over again. On his part, Idris was even more of an Asake devotee. For instance, he told the newspaper something close to all you want to know about Asake, his birthplace in Lagos, the neighbourhood he lived in down to his albums from right about 2018 till today. If, for instance, there is a musical video of Asake on television and you try to talk with the chap, you will just be wasting your time to get Idris’s attention.
“Asake is the current reigning entertainer in the country,” Idris said. “He is more known to young people like me now. But he hasn’t got the influence and reach of Kizz Daniel,” Idris conceded. “Kizz Daniel is a bigger star but Asake is the man we are all talking about now.” Nor is Asake himself unwilling to feature some of the big name entertainers in his musical video shoots. There was one with Olamide in “Omo Epe,” another with Burna Boy in Mr. Money With the Vibes which they performed at Madison Square Garden in New York. Of the now famous Mr. Money With the Vibes, Asake told an interviewer once that “making the album didn’t even come with stress for me at all. You know I was just enjoying myself. Life is not that hard. It’s all about the vibes, how I feel at this moment that things I’ve imagined are happening.”
Recently relocated to the United States, the Nigerian music marvel said in the same interview that “I’ve been relaxing and trying to know how to live here… It’s like coming here for another energy entirely. I only go out to make money. My outdoors is when I am on my balcony. I like to see outside, not go outside.”
Two very important events early and later this month will reshape an artiste already on the climb to fame. The first is his birthday on January 13. For millions of his followers, it will present an opportunity to show their love and admiration for a singer, songwriter who has kept them on their feet on the dance floor or glued to their earpiece listening to that favourite number by Asake. The second is when Radio 1’s Sound for 2023 winner is announced. Already long-listed, if Asake does not make the short list, he will, as he has done consistently in the last couple of years, entertain his teeming audience with his compositions. If he wins, then his fan base is sure to increase and even catapult him to unimagined heights, certainly more than where he is at the moment.
About the Author
Michael Jimoh is a Nigerian journalist with many years experience in print media. He is currently a Special Correspondent with THEWILL.
