Asake a.k.a MR MONEY is no average Joe in the Nigerian music industry, with a truck of hits records, mainstream media thirst, social media buzz and streaming finesse. You can’t just doubt that, this Jigga is on a roll.
Born Ahmed Ololade, a graduate of Theatre and Performing Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria and a Lagos boy. His ride into music stemmed from his formative years as a drummer and dancer. As a young boy, he loved to dance and was very good at it. He specialized in cultural dance, spending his free hours practising different dance techniques to improve his skill. As a high school student, he performed at school events, thrilling his schoolmates and staff members with energetic cultural dances. It was from dancing that he got the nickname, Asake.
He took the initiative for his music career at a very tender age, he dropped a series of freestyles across all his social media platforms. His career kicked off professionally in 2015. Inspired by the success of music stars like Olamide, Davido, Wizkid, 9ice, and Wande Coal, he joined the Afrobeats music space, focusing on Afrofusion songs. He fused Hip Hop, Amapiano, R&B, and Fuji sound, to create music that would stand out from other artists.
He would go on to be a backup singer for Broda Shaggi‘s band, performing at shows and events across the country. He collaborated with Broda Shaggi to release the single ‘Star’ in 2019. The song did pretty well in the market and helped more music fans to learn of his talent. Encouraged by this win, he released the single ‘Lady’ in January 2020. The song went viral on social media thanks to different influencers reposting the single on their pages, and content creators using it as background music in their videos. One can say that this single paved the way for him to drop the hit single ‘Mr Money’ and mark his official arrival in the limelight in 2020.
He will for a while, rowed in that relative run of success, capitalized on it and released yet another smash hit ‘Omo Ope’ and the song would go viral on the internet. So huge that it got to the ears of rapper and music executive, Olamide who fell in love with the song and pushed for a remix that became a music madness in its rights. This will then earn him a record deal with YBNL, and the rest has just been hits after hits. He recently got voted the ‘Breakout Artiste of the Year’ by NET Honours. But what is he really all about, the lyrics below from his latest hit song ‘Peace Be Unto You (PBUY)’ gives us some context to that question?
“Padi mi hustle lo
Kodigba ti nba ni ko buckle up
Alaye mi sare te button lo
Gbogbo nkan ko na ma fin jogor joor joor
Ka lo shey shopping joor
I no dey send I dey chop my life
100 percent we dey gbadun lo
Awon ti o fe wa kan maa struggle lo lo”
- Asake – Peace Be Unto You (PBUY)
The above lyrics speak heartily of the grind and struggle of every young enterprising Nigerian, who seeks to make it in life despite the sad reality of the country and a motivation to strive on for the goal and not dull in your efforts for greatness. Asake is unique, as his personality screams the complete package, that which is desired in an artiste, to be precise having the star factor and looking like one.
His journey so far has been gracious and his story has only begun. It is quite astonishing to find great acts that emerge from the streets and create a niche for themselves in the music industry because most labels these days are not interested in artiste development. As I have stated in my previous articles, Mavin records remain the only label that has the best artiste development in the Nigerian pop music scene while the church in general still maintains the top shots for artiste development in Nigeria.
A lot of artists signed by record labels do not usually make it to the limelight only a limited number make it and blow up in our faces. Labels always take a risk for every artiste signed, sometimes they win, sometimes they don’t, it is all part of the process. But the streets can be a veritable artiste development scheme, Lagos as we know is the nerve or should I say the nucleus of Nigerian pop culture where there are a lot of influences due to its cosmopolitan nature.
The average Lagos boy or girl is believed to have either or all three creative skills, the ability to play football, the ability to dance and the ability to sing. These may be stereotypes but they speak volumes of the culture and pride of the Mecca of Afrobeats in Africa. We need to understand the origin of breakout artists in the contemporary Nigerian music pop scene, as it will help us better comprehend the rise of Asake, it all began in the year 1999/2000 when the craze for music groups to break up was at its height in Nigeria and some of these casualties were The Remedies, Plantashun Boiz and Trybesmen who were also known as ‘The Run DMC of Africa’ at their peak. This year in review, set the pace for acts to go solo, blow up, release amazing bodies of work and have impressive runs in the music industry.
Some of these artists include Tony Tetuila, 2 Face, Olu Maintain who some critics liken to Asake, Wande Coal, Wizkid, Olamide, Davido, Kizz Daniel, Lil Kesh, Rema, MI, Tekno and Runtown have all had impressive runs and blow years at different times. But what makes Asake different is that he is having both at significant proportions in the same timeline. Imagine having five hits records within the first six months of your blow year. It has never been done before then the peak was four hit records.
Music aficionados argue that they have never seen anything like this (Asake) before. The new model of music promotion is truly beneficial to his reality which banks on the influence of social media and the vitality of music streaming. The internet has made it easier for his kind of artist to achieve success in this digital era where the protocols for promoting and marketing artists are centralized but in all honesty, it is not easier just accessible and the model for blowing artists up is no longer decentralized.
There is a limitation to radio, and television but music streaming has more structure, worth and reach. The present generation of promoters, influencers, artists and other stakeholders in the music industry are enjoying the sacrifices and efforts of the previous generation who did not have the new wave of social media and music streaming.
According to Motolani Alake, the managing editor of Pulse Nigeria, ‘Music blogs created a pipeline for accessibility of music to the natives of the internet.’ The music blogs of the late 2000s and early 2010s influenced the consumption of music on the internet and helped a lot of digital citizens embrace music in this digital age in Nigeria.
Asake has an inbuilt star factor in him and TG Omori is just helping to shape that into prime with his remarkable music videos. His brand is that of a man for all seasons, his fanbase is transcending, he is so layered as an artist and the perception of him is quite dynamic. The future is one I believe will be of no limits, just progress. Asake needs to brace up for the ‘Big Guns’ who are bound to drop new music, weather the storm, survive with his next records and drop an outstanding album, he will be fine in the industry.
He should endeavour to try his hands at experimenting with other genres of music, test his range as an artist and solidify his status in the industry. But he needs to take his time and not rush things, as evolution if planned properly is a wonder to behold.
So the Nigerian music industry is just getting started, many of these acts like Wizkid once said are just scratching the surface. I say to you on this voyage of discovery, to infinity and beyond.