Five Takeaways from Asake’s New Album, ‘Lungu Boy’

Asake’s magnetism was present ever since the first second of his breakout. With his signing onto Olamide’s iconic YBNL label, the Lagos-bred superstar entered into the canonical center of street hop, a subgenre whose sensibilities he adopted into his high-wire act as Mr. Money.

The announcement of his third studio album, Lungu Boy, elicited excitement from several corners. The titular word ‘lungu’ connotes alliance with one’s hood and is itself quite famous around Lagos circles. Although the feature choices — Wizkid, Travis Scott, Central Cee, LUDMILLA and Stormzy — are mainly international acts, they suggest that Asake wants to stretch the horizons of his global influence.

Now the album is here, the Nigerian artist’s third in three consecutive years. After the brilliant offering that was Work of Art, a lot of listeners would favor Asake to complete a trifecta. It’s an opinion that is down to the progression of time, though there are some immediate takeaways we can glean from Lungu Boy.

Here are five of them.

Personal reflection remains a thematic core

Asake has always used his albums to speak on how he’s feeling. A cataloger of his emotional landscape, keen to put his career into perspective, records like “Nzaza” and “Lonely At The Top” occupy exalted positions in his oeuvre, for the fact of their introspection and the level of execution. On Lungu Boy, that remains a centerpiece of the artist’s motivations; he even inspires the most personal verse Wizkid has delivered in a while, where he mentions his departed mother amidst soft patter drums and mellifluous horns.

He touches distinct eras of Nigerian music

It’s quite telling that the first voice one hears on Lungu Boy isn’t Asake’s, but that of the soul singer, Asa. The singer-songwriter is quite revered by generations of Nigerian artists that have come after her, with the likes of Blaqbonez and Taves paying homage to her in distinct ways. Here, Asake samples her classic “Eye Adaba” on the introductory track “Start”.

Such an artistic choice isn’t isolated. Since his popular breakout, Asake has been intentional about connecting distinct eras and sensibilities within Nigerian music. In Asake, one hears the sound of the church, but also bits from the mosque, just like it is on Lagos Island where he grew up. On Lungu Boy, the Asa sample touches Wizkid, both artists not being far from each other. Likewise, his amapiano explorations are fused with fuji, while there also seems to be a heavy hip-hop influence on the album, which is no surprise given how widespread and influential the genre was to the foundational period of Nigerian pop.

Less amapiano, more experiments

In the past, Asake has caught flak for summarily adopting amapiano into his albums. Even when the end result was distinct, as on Work of Art, a section of Nigerian listeners would hastily classify any production with log drums as amapiano. As the producer Sarz once elucidated in a tweet, that couldn’t be further from the truth, as log drums are increasingly being used in a different sonic context. Sarz, who co-produces “Active” alongside Mike Dean, surely delivers on that technique as the production combines aspects of house, hip-hop and funk, which still holds up as one of the most stirring beats across the tape.

The fight against expectations

One hears a lot from Asake across his third album. For an artist who’s consistently made great art from energetic bops, at times on Lungu Boy that energy seems to slither into restlessness. He’s doing a lot, possibly with an eye on critics and the fact that he’s now being held to very high standards. It is this implicit factor that informs the stuffed atmosphere of the album, wherein Asake tries out a lot of signature vocal tricks, but unfortunately, the execution doesn’t match the vision.

Asake and the global Black market

In the current Afropop soundscape, few superstars come in the mold of Asake. He’s highly attuned to the ebbs of Black music globally, synthesizing its myriad qualities into his music. When he sampled the legendary Mauritanian artist Michel Legris’ “Mo Capitaine” on the intro of “Yoga,” it was understood that Asake was reaching deeper into Black spirituals, which isn’t a strange choice whatsoever considering the somber themes he’s embodied since his first album.

There, in that spiritual awareness, also springs an understanding of markets and their unifying experiences. For Black people globally, the history of migration exists alongside the history of music and culture. When Asake links up with Travis Scott on “Active,” we’re instantly aware of the percussive similarities between fuji and hip-hop. Likewise does his foray into the U.K. market through his Central Cee and Stormzy collaborations connect with the distinct manifestations of Black culture in that space. But the most interesting intercontinental pairing comes on “Whine,” where a dancehall production melds into Asake and LUDMILLA’s passionate performance.

As he grows stronger into his artistry, it’s inevitable that Asake will continue to move across history, present and future in this sense.

Listen to Lungu Boy below.