Asake, the neo-Fuji star, Kizz Daniel is back & Santi defends his art
Preamble
Nigeria's longest-running music awards, The Headies, released its nominees' list this week. In usual fashion, everyone and their mama had an opinion. You can cut on all Twitter space noise and read this instead.
Culture Decoded
Asake Is a Neo-Fuji Star
Ololade mi Asake. You know how that tag goes.
Nigeria's hottest club act is on a hot roll. In 2022, he has dropped three heavy singles, and we are not yet in June. 'Omo Ope', 'Sungba' (including the remix with Burna Boy) and ‘Palazzo’ are in heavy rotation.
This week, Asake previewed his next single, and it sounded lit. This guy is going to dominate in 2022.
Asake is more than a pop star. He is a neo-fuji act. If you listen to his flows, he is an Afrobeats version of a Fuji star.
Fuji is still a big genre with a deep-rooted culture in the South-West. It is also part of the Afrobeats DNA. Many singers have a noticeable Fuji influence, but with Asake, it is the bedrock of his current sound.
He stretches or compresses his Fuji cadence to fit the beat. And his beats! Remember when Afrobeats instrumentals were harder than concrete circa 2012-2015? Yeah, Asake feels comfortable on them. Essentially, you have a neo-Fuji act on throwback lamba beats.
What Asake is doing with Fuji reminds me of what Sir Shina Peters did with Juju. He gave Juju music a bolt of energy with his back-to-back classics 'Ace' and 'Shinamania' in 1989 and 1990.
Shina Peters came with intensity, sex appeal and groovy drum patterns that extended Juju till KWAM 1 crashed the building with his Fuji run in the 90s.
Asake might just be the Fuji act for Gen Z if he continues with this style and is not afraid to further experiment with it. Think of him as the new Pasuma.
Santi Polarizes Yet Again
The alte-auteur/artist/anime fan Santi/Cruel Santino is back again.
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It was only in March he released his highly polarizing album, 'Subaru Boyz: FINAL HEAVEN' that caused an alte vs the world battle online. On Thursday, he released a music video via his Twitter, and the song has Cruel Santino going back in time to drop JSS2 flows on us.
Soon enough, Santi started to trend, and music threads choked my timeline. At this point, it is cool to hate Santi's music, and it is also cool to like Santi's music. Only a few artists in the world can be this polarizing.
The following day, Santi defended his artistic choices and announced a new album scheduled for this year.
Progress doesn't have to be perfect, I guess.
Kizz Daniel Back
We didn't need Shazam to tell us. 'Buga' featuring Tekno is a global smash. Everyone is dancing, from old mums to first ladies.
Kizz Daniel is on a hot streak right now. 'Barnabas' EP has garnered 100 million streams on Audiomack and Boomplay. 'Buga' is an earworm. He is having fun on his tour overseas.
It's good to see KD in the mix again. The public moved on too quickly from his ‘King of Love’ album released in 2020.
The pop star seems he is in a good space. What's next for him is his long-awaited global domination. Afrobeats to the world.
Songs You Should Check Out
All Eyes On Me
I was at Pulse Nigeria this week for a guest appearance on the Terms and Condition podcast hosted by Tolani, Melody Hassan and Excel. The episode should drop early in the week.
Girls just wanna have fun.