“It’s time for you to show the world what you’re all about”
– Olamide on ‘Trabaye‘.
Sometime in January 2020, I stumbled upon a download link for a song titled “Lady” by Asake. Curiously, I downloaded the song without any expectations, and to my surprise, it was a bop and still my favorite Asake song to date, But I had questions. “Who is Asake?”, “Why is a man’s stage name Asake?” “why does he not have a big record label after his signature yet?” Of course, I had no answer to my questions, but I was happy I had just discovered another new artiste for my music pleasure.
Two years later, after a couple of singles, Asake came into 2022 with a lot of fire, zeal, and star power even though he wasn’t one yet.
He was a man on a mission, and you could feel it from his first single, “Omo Ope.” Seeing Olamide hop on an Asake record was pure joy for the singer’s fans because we knew how much a verse from Baddo could push his career. The release of ‘Omo Ope‘ signified an essential moment in his career, indicating that Asake was beyond ready to take over the scene. He was prepared for stardom.
Being ready for stardom doesn’t mean you’ll get into that stardom. You need to take the proper steps, and the very energetic singer has, beyond all doubts taken all the right ones. He got the record label deal with YBNL, dropped a solid project a month after his first hit of the year, and followed up with three other hits even after his EP in the first quarter.
On “Trabaye,” the first song of “Ololade Asake,” the EP, Olamide said, “It’s time for you to go show the world what you’re all about,” and 5months after, Asake is taking us into a real dive of what he is all about. The EP had four high-quality songs, but one particular song(Sungba) resonated with the music audience, and he once again took the right step and remixed it with a top gun, Burna Boy, and shot the video with one of the best in the business, TG Omori.
Once again, the audience loved it, and it felt like Asake had hacked how to get the audience’s attention. His flows, vibe, and use of quotable were unmatched. The fans couldn’t but just fall in love with him. Who hears “Palazzo’, Jiggy, Gboja, Ko’le reason, No sleeping, omo no dullin” and won’t vibe along? Or who hears “Assalam Alaykum, I getti many many disciples” and won’t sing along? He has stuck to a similar formula and it has not failed him yet. ‘Sungba‘ remix, ‘Palazzo‘, and ‘Peace Be Unto You‘(PBUY) are testaments of the working procedure.
Shooting his music video with a creative genius like TG Omori is also another testament to him making the right decisions. TG Omori has done an excellent job with Asake’s videos. They were creating clean visuals and focusing the attention on the man himself, the superstar Asake.
Like a grown-up on a mission, Asake has taken all the right decisions, made the right moves, and dropped the right bops. The question now is: How long can the success continue? How long can he keep dropping the bangs for? Will the “Street music don’t last” curse catch up with him? We are all hoping the success continues for a very long time and hope he continues to cook sweet tunes for us. Cheers to many more “Ololade Mi Asake.”
