Stop complaining! Here is proof that anything can go mainstream

Adekunle Gold’s eponymous album has been receiving rave reviews by fans, the industry, pressmen, your mother, my father, and just about anyone who has heard it. The only few pockets of dissent and negativity has been offered respectfully.

“The album lacked this, and this, and this,….but it is a great work and a win.” That’s how the negativity comes in. Very constructive and respectful.

In the past 5 years, it has been a rarity for an album to not polarize opinion. There always has to be two strong opposing sides, for and against any body of work. Exclusive of Adekunle Gold’s album, only Asa’s “Bed of Stone”, and Falz’s “Stories That Touch” have successfully been able to achieve this. In a way, this is a true measure of the quality of the album. A few times distasteful albums were released, the PR mechanisms go to work, shutting down the truth by behind-the-scenes manipulation of the media. But trust Twitter to be armed with the truth. Nobody censors, regulates and influences opinions on that platform in the music industry. Nobody has money for that. Bad work is bad work. Period.

The reasons for Adekunle Gold’s good feedback are not far to find. The singer first stands out in personality, wearing an adorable brand of humility and humor that appeals to fans. He retweets, comments on stuff, and randomly performs touching acts of kindness. This persona has manifested in various ways, building up a huge store of love and affection for the singer, and translating into the successful acceptance of his works. If he drops a poor work today, he just might get away with it due to the ‘love’ he gives and enjoys.

Another reason for this is that the work is not bad. A standard project with very few faults, Pulse review states that “Adekunle Gold’s debut work ticks a lot of boxes, and sets a conceptual standard that should be the norm, but sadly, is an exception. There’s also a distinct lack of a power recording that would define the EP, and stand out not as a commercial endeavor, but a true representation of the singer’s ability to create a classic. Also, the project slightly slips into a monotony of sound. But the general consistency in delivery and the novelty of having a project of such quality papers over this crack, and presents what is a solid LP.”

But the final one is the genre-novelty that he champions, and the level at which he is playing. Adekunle Gold’s music is not new in the true sense of it. What he does is Highlife music subtly fused with other traditional genres including Fuji. These genres have existed forever, amassing great icons, and great followings across the world. But Adekunle Gold modernizes these melodies and the creative process by refining his themes and subject matter to appeal to us. The rest is branding and positioning, done by a well-oiled functional PR machine – BukiHQ Media.

Nigeria is blessed with a multitude of genres which are under-represented in the full picture of pop music. But they have found new life as fusion sounds, or sometimes, their component parts are extracted by producers to create a cross-genre mix. Rarely are they presented in their true melody, regardless of subject matter. Adekunle Gold’s bravery to dip into that world of relegated tribal music, and his insistence to play at the top level has been rewarded spectacularly. But what’s most important is that it provides proof that regardless of the decline of genre-specific audiences, pop culture still has space for the promotion and appreciation of new sounds. No other person is currently on it, with the closest being Apala hopeful, Terry Apala, who fuses the traditional sound with modern drums and kicks to create a fused balancing act.