By: Bobby Nishimwe
Is less than a year too soon to release another album for an artist? Conventional industry wisdom would probably tell you yes, but Asake begs to differ with that normative way of thinking. He has dropped his second career album "Work of Art," which is nine months after he released “Mr. Money With The Vibe."
Now, I have my own theories around why Asake and his team chose to make such a hasty release of another album. As you’ve probably heard so many times, our current society suffers from short attention span syndrome and that applies to music fans as well. An artist has to find a way to remain relevant in their fans' minds or they will lose streams and an audience for future projects.
Asake has been on an extreme high since last summer, and that momentum has not slowed down. There really hasn’t been another African artist chopping away at his popularity outside of the South African artists with their popular Amapiano Tik Tok tunes, and of course Davido with his recent project which Asake was featured on.
Asake’s team saw that it was best to release a second album while he is still the talk of the town. In other words, ride the wave, don’t let the wave sweep you away. On top of this, Asake has two big performances coming up later this summer. In August he is due to perform at the world famous O2 Arena in London which will include special guests followed by a concert at the home of The Brooklyn Nets, Barclays Center, in september. These performances will be part of his “Work of Art” tour.
I just have to blow my own horn and say that I predicted that Asake would be headlining his own O2 Arena concert this year.
The two arena performances, I believe, are a good enough justification to release a second album even if a year has not passed. You have to remember, Asake had a whole a global tour last summer for his debut album so his team must provide a good reason to encourage his fans to attend another world tour of his in a year’s time. When an artist performs at such big venues, fans are expecting a whole production and a much longer set. Therefore, Asake needed to increase his discography to meet the artistic demands of such large venues.
This project has so far performed remarkably well on the charts. “Work of Art” debuted at #4 on Billboard’s World Albums, charting for two weeks straight. All but one track on the album is charting on Apple Music’s Top 100 Songs in Nigeria, with “Lonely At The Top” ranked as #1 song in the country. On Spotify, the album is #1 in Nigeria and has been charting for a month straight. All 14 tracks on his album are in the top 100 weekly songs in Nigeria on Spotify charts, with “Lonely At The Top” ranked at #2 in the nation. Asake is also ranked as #1 for the daily top artists in Nigeria, charting for the longest time of 502 days straight. Not only that, he is ranked as #1 for the weekly top artists in his country, charting for 73 weeks straight.
I want to start my review by comparing the intro records of “Work of Art” and “Mr. Money With the Vibe.”
The intro record “Dull” from his debut album was him stating that he has arrived and that energy will be delivered, hence the chorus line starting off with “I swear I no go dull.” You felt a sense of hunger and readiness for stardum exuding from not only the lyrics but the composition of the instruments, vocals and melody.
On his new project, the intro “Olorun'' sounds more like a plea for God’s guidance. Asake reflects on his journey from almost giving up in 2020 to being uplifted to the top. He recognizes that his rise has not been easy and that he has also changed throughout the past year and so of success. This intro allows us to really get into Asake’s current mindset of wanting his success to be lasting and for God to be at the forefront of maintaining this journey he has placed him on. Asake also wrote this song, which speaks more to how much of a personal undertaking this project must have been for the artist. We can clearly see this theme of introspection and self-reflection of his current standing within this new found success coming through in the various tracks on this project.
Now I know what you all want me to answer, is this album as good as his debut? The answer to that is no, but it’s not a bad no. This album does the job that it needed to do for a second career project. It was not bad, in fact it was good and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole album. What didn’t make it as great as his debut was the fact that I didn’t get an entirely new Asake. The project was still Afro Piano all throughout, which includes Asake’s signature native Fuji sound.
I believe that the most important creative question for Asake is, who is he as an artist without the Afro Piano sound? Will we ever get a fully Fuji project from Asake? Will we ever get a straight up Afrobeats album from him? Or am I in fact asking questions that are irrelevant to the continued success of an artist like Asake.
To be honest with you, I probably am asking questions that Asake and his team don’t really feel are an actual concern to fans. Now, I would say that once we get to the third and fourth career album, fans will probably be asking these questions a lot more. The reason being that fans do not want to be bored, we are always in search of the next thing even when it comes to our favorite artists.
I had this exact same conversation with one of my friends, and they had a different take from mine. He believed that Asake actually did give us something different from his last project, being that he showed us the various ways in which an Afrobeats artist could repurpose the Amapiano sound. So, I went and listened to the project with that take in mind and I have to confess that I agree with my friend to a certain degree.
I can see how my friend could have come to such a conclusion when listening to this album, some of the records on this project lean a bit more towards the Fuji/Afrobeats sound than others. For example, take Mogbe & Lonely At The Top, these two records stand out as a clear illustration of Asake and his producers’ ability to take Amapiano and remix it into what feels more like a native Nigerian sound.
It is no shocker that “Lonely At The Top” has been the highest charting record on the album, outside of the two pre-released singles “Amapiano” and “2:30.”
First, the song is a beautiful record with a powerful message of Asake claiming his success and not allowing anything, be it loneliness or other’s opinions, get in the way of his chase. The melody and rhythm of this record are to die for, they bring out a sense of sweetness and joy that encourages the listener to celebrate their accomplishments and not waste their life away for things that don’t add value or love in their own world.
On the other side, songs like Basquiat, Amapiano, 2:30 and I Believe are more tilted towards the Amapiano sound. They are conventional Asake records, and that is not to say that he didn’t incorporate any new elements but they are what I would expect from him.
Straight off the bat, I was totally won over by his track “Sunshine.” This record co-written by Asake, Olamide (Asake’s record label boss), Paul Tucker and produced by Blaisebeatz, gives me the sense that life is going to be better tomorrow. Whatever God has waiting for me will have me feeling like I’m on a yacht overlooking the beautiful clear blue waters of Zanzibar, eating nyama choma with a side of the popular East African rice dish, pilau, and chapati cooked by a Swahili auntie.
Overall, I think that Asake and his team should be proud of the incredible second album that they have produced.
From the beginning to the end, you are infused with sounds that are both calming and energetic at the same time, a credit to the brilliance of the producers on this project. This album shows us a man who understands what it has taken for them to get where they are today. Asake is both grateful and in search of continued guidance from God to make sure that this path of theirs continues with success. He is being unapologetic about his hustle mentality that has enabled him to indulge in the things he loves.
What I appreciate the most about Asake is his unwavering spiritual inclination that flows through the melodies of his songs.
Asake is a great example of how the creative industry on the continent continues to uplift so many young Africans to heights that would have been unimaginable just a mere decade ago.
Album Producers:
Magicsticks, 11 records
Blaisebeatz, 3 records
Ppriime, 1 record
Anoop D’Souza, 1 record
Album Writers:
Ahmed Olalade (Asake), 14 records
Olamide Adedeji, 10 records
Paul Tucker, 1 record
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