Awesome Deji's 'Gen Z Fuji' Is An Attempt To Further Fuse Two Historic Genres

By: Ayomide Tayo 

The song ‘Gen Z Fuji’ by Nigerian recording artist Awesome Deji, off his 2024 EP, ‘Omo Alhaja’, is a song that caught my attention after listening to this body of work. 

Yes, many songs and albums have jumped on the Fuji-Pop bandwagon since the emergence of Asake in 2022, but this does not mean that it is not a legitimate cultural fusion. The South-Western genre plays a role in contemporary Nigerian pop music, Afrobeats. 

Fuji, born in the 1960s from ‘Were’, a devotional Ramadan singing tradition, its architect, Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, transformed improvisational street chants into a structured musical form. 

By the 1980s and 1990s, Barrister’s former roadie, Wasiu Ayinde Marshal (later KWAM 1), rose to prominence, modernising Fuji’s sound and broadening its mainstream appeal. By the mid-1990s, KWAM 1 had turned Fuji into a national powerhouse as new stars like Obesere, Adewale Ayuba, and Pasuma Wonder reshaped the genre for a younger, more urban audience. 

As the 2000s ushered in contemporary Nigerian pop, its rhythms, chants, and vocal textures seeped deeply. Today’s acts have caused a resurgence in the genre. There has been renewed fascination, sparked by nostalgia, internet rediscovery, and new Fuji hybrid songs are being produced by the minute, and one of them is ‘Gen Z Fuji.’ 

‘Gen Z Fuji’ is a descriptive title that gives you an inkling of its sound and subject matter as well. Awesome Deji, the track’s composer, who hails from Ijebu Igbo in Ogun state, has tapped into the roots of the historic genre to create a song worthy of mention. 

The song produced by Gudboi Productions is a blend of Fuji and modern pop sounds, catering to a mass audience. It’s a melodious dance number that showcases Awesome Deji’s versatility. The part of the hook sticks to you like glue. Awesome Deji delivers his verses in Fuji-speak (Yoruba, English, and Nigerian Pidgin) regularly heard on the streets of Lagos, the global capital of Afrobeats. 

Gen Z Fuji is a contemporary twist of the famous Yoruba genre. It boasts of a rolling percussion that ensures non-stop dancing. In the second verse, Awesome Deji intensifies his melodies to drive home the party and merriment texture of the song. Backed with the traditional Fuji backup vocals, Gen Z Fuji is a nice attempt at merging Afrobeats and Fuji. Both genres are aptly represented in the song.

Gen-Z Fuji incorporates the traditional talking drum and multiple rhythms, and its simplistic but effective hook is bound to pull people to his style of music. Hopefully, his EP has more goodies like this to do the job. Awesome Deji is attempting to modernise Fuji for a younger crowd who are thirsty for more songs that proudly display our music culture. With more live performances with a solid Fuji band, he has a shot at doing so. 

With more vocal training required for Fuji music, Awesome Deji can pivot into a full-time Afrobeats/Fuji hybrid that can serve both old and new listeners. Personally, I wish his EP could be filled with more moments like this, but for now, this solo offering is enough to keep an eye on him and his future works.

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