How Asake Chose Olamide’s YBNL Over Chocolate City

The Nigerian music industry is filled with exciting stories and one of those stories is trending on social media involves how Afrobeats superstar Asake was almost signed to the record label Chocolate City.

In a post shared by the label's Head of A&R, Osagie Onobun AKA 10Ten, narrated how the company was close to signing Asake back in 2022, just before he released his hit single 'Omo Ope'.
According to 10TEN, the papers were ready, and both parties had aligned, then Asake suddenly disappeared.

"Caught up with him and he said he needed to test a release and see how things go first," the A&R revealed. That release was 'Omo Ope,' a January 2022 single that announced something different was coming, and pushed Asake further. By February, Asake had signed to YBNL. The Chocolate City never heard from Mr. Money again.

This was the pre-YBNL Asake, still finding his footing, and still unknown to the mainstream. Chocolate City, at that point, represented a specific kind of Nigerian music industry pedigree. It was the label that built M.I Abaga, Ice Prince, Jesse Jagz, Dice Ailes, CKay, and Blaqbonez's careers and defined the architecture of Nigerian hip-hop.

Asake was also knocking on the door by constantly putting out records and positioning himself with stars in the hope of one day having his time in the limelight.

From serving as the road manager to Comedian and Actor Broda Shaggi to being a dancer for Afrobeats star Skibii and impacting the underground scene with a steady release of songs that earned him collaborations with heavyweights like DJ Xclusive and Young Jonn.

Asake would eventually sign with Olamide Baddo's YBNL, on whose roster he would become an era-defining superstar.

The overwhelming consensus online is that Asake landed exactly where he needed to, and it's hard to argue otherwise. His sound, the Yoruba spirituals woven into club records, the deliberately rough texture of his early work, felt like something Olamide would instinctively understand and protect.

The bottom line is that sometimes, it's easier for conclusions to be drawn after the facts have played out. Asake's union with YBNL was a hugely successful one that changed his career and impacted Afrobeats. However, one can only imagine what would have happened had the union with Chocolate City worked out.

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