Asake
Ahmed Ololade Asake grew up in Lagos in a household steeped in fuji music — both his parents loved pioneers like Ayinde Barrister — before studying theatre at Obafemi Awolowo University and releasing early singles under TFT Records from 2018. His February 2022 signing to Olamide's YBNL Nation, sparked by the Olamide-featuring breakout 'Omo Ope,' set off a run of record-breaking albums (Mr. Money With the Vibe, Work of Art, Lungu Boy) built on call-and-response fuji chants layered over amapiano-tinged, percussion-forward Afrobeats production. Now running his own label, Giran Republic, he's become one of the most recognizable architects of Afrobeats' contemporary 'Afro-fuji' turn.
Asake has named Barrister his favorite singer of all time — 'I love Barrister a lot, because of the soul in his voice' — a debt he paid off directly by lifting a line from Barrister's 1980 'Oke Agba' into his own 2022 song 'Dull.'
listen forHear the talking-drum-driven praise-chant of Barrister's 'Oke Agba,' then Asake's 'Dull,' which folds a line straight from that record into its own fuji-chant hook over modern Afrobeats production.
Olamide signed Asake to YBNL Nation in February 2022 after hearing 'Omo Ope' and became the biggest hand in shaping his sound as mentor and label boss; that street-hop instinct — a hook built from a chanted, repeated word punched over a stripped, percussion-forward beat — runs through Asake's own singles.
listen forPlay Olamide's 'Wo!!,' built almost entirely around the barked, Yoruba-language hook 'wo' over a hard beat, then Asake's 'Omo Ope' — the very song that got him signed, with Olamide himself on the track and the same chant-first hook construction.
Asake has described looking up to Wizkid growing up — 'I genuinely love Wizkid himself... I was part of the people that listened and see how great Wiz is' — and it shows in the unhurried, melody-forward pop-Afrobeats sensibility layered under his heavier fuji percussion, a debt the two eventually paid off by recording together directly.
listen forPlay Wizkid's atmospheric 'Ojuelegba,' then Asake and Wizkid's own collaboration 'MMS' — the same laid-back, melody-first Afrobeats glide, with Asake's fuji-chant energy threaded through it.