Nobody Captures Contemporary Nigerian Life Like FOLA
The 24-year-old Nigerian artist and OkayAfrica’s Artist of the Month for March is not just excellent at delivering soulful Afropop; he has built a reputation for chronicling the angst and thrill of being young and Nigerian today.
Nelson C.J.NelsonC.J.Nelson C.J.Lagos-Based West Africa Correspondent
In OkayAfrica’s first Artist of the Month, we speak to FOLA, whose music, a striking blend of Afropop and contemporary Nigerian R&B, is refreshingly soulful.by Jefferson Harris for OkayAfrica
Introducing OkayAfrica’s Artist of The Month. Every month, OkayAfrica spotlights an exceptional African artist making an impact on African music and culture. From rising stars who are shaping new sounds to established artists driving culture forward, this series is our stage for celebrating incredible and ingenious African artistry.
Most people would describe FOLA’s music — a striking blend of Afropop and contemporary Nigerian R&B — as refreshingly soulful. And if those people include members of his fast-growing fanbase known as the Folaholics, other descriptors such as relatable, easygoing, and “Boy next door energy” will certainly emerge.
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Feyikemi Akin-Bankole, a marketing consultant who began listening to FOLA’s music in late 2024, describes it as “honest and familiar.” Meanwhile, Victor Ogunte, another longtime fan and a fellow artist, calls FOLA’s talent a “direct gift from God.”
Thankfully, though, these are sentiments FOLA is comfortable embracing.
“I think my music [shows] what it means to be a Nigerian youth today,” the 24-year-old told OkayAfrica. It’s a listless day in the middle of March, and FOLA is a spirited voice on a virtual call. He is speaking to me from his home in Lagos, where he admittedly spends most of his time.
FOLA’s self-assessment is accurate. His music does hold up a mirror to the complexities and restlessness of being young and Nigerian today. His discography, which draws from conversations in the zeitgeist, is littered with hits like “you” and “lost,” and boasts a well-received album, Carthasis, released back in 2025.
Listening to FOLA can often elicit the sense that he’s on the same timeline as his fans. He sees the news they’re reacting to and isn’t oblivious to what’s currently shaking up their ‘for you’ page. “He speaks to the things a lot of young Nigerians are thinking about and experiencing: love, ambition, and money. It’s honest and familiar, and that’s what makes people connect with it,” Akin-Bankole says.
There’s often a feeling that he’s just as confused about matters of love and desire as his listeners are. That he’s also figuring out who to be in and how to interact with an increasingly befuddling world. And that he isn’t afraid to admit those things.
Alongside that, FOLA knows how to be a salve to his listeners. He knows how to be a warm and surprising hiding place, such that you come to think of his music like a fort. One he builds in the middle of chaos, inviting his listeners to step in and, for a few minutes, be young, wanting, and human again.
It’s what makes him rather special and easy to love, but above all, it’s a quality that has distinguished him as an astute chronicler of contemporary Nigerian life, as well as the perfect person for the first edition of OkayAfrica’s African Artist of the month.
An unconventional star
FOLA is a vibrant, understated talent working in a genre that’s undergoing an existential crisis.by Fawazgramz
FOLA (Odunlami Afolarin Temiloluwa) was born in Ibadan, an ancient, culturally vibrant town in South-west Nigeria. He grew up listening to gospel music and knew early on that music might be a possible career path. At home, there was a lot of Yinka Ayefele and Tope Alabi in rotation. But as he got older, he picked up music from stars like Wande Coaland 9ice. These days, he describes himself as spiritual and hasn’t lost touch with his love for Gospel music or early-2000s Afrobeats music.
But FOLA isn’t the only one in his family who loves music. “None of us did it professionally, but we all [have] good voices,” he explains. His family gravitated towards gospel in various ways. They sang it during morning devotional sessions, and his father played the keyboard. His involvement in gospel music would later peter out during secondary school. It was where FOLA would go on to set up a four-man band with a rival classmate-turned-friend.
As the story goes, the rival classmate was popular mostly amongst the girls for his freestyle raps. It attracted a notoriety that FOLA felt compelled to challenge. So he hatched a plan.
“My older brother (one of his two siblings) had written a four-line rap at the back of his notebook,” FOLA says, peppering his sentences with pidgin and a laidback cadence that makes the conversation feel like a catch-up with an old friend. “I crammed it in my head and already had it in the back of my mind that this guy that’s always rapping, next time he comes out to rap, I’ll go and challenge him.” And that’s exactly what he did. He stepped into his rival’s domain, delivered the memorised rap lines, and gained instant notoriety.
That story can be used to sum up who FOLA is and what he represents in the current wave of Nigerian music. He is a vibrant, understated talent working in a genre that’s undergoing an existential crisis. Yet he has managed to maintain a stronghold that many have found hard to sustain. This may have something to do with the fact that FOLA maintains a close proximity to the honesty of his feelings. “My music is basically me. Everything you listen to is just how I feel. I'm not lying to you. I’d say that's why it's so original.”
There’s also something to be said about his approach to storytelling. FOLA’s lyrics combine spiritual supplications, street lingo, atypically poetic metaphors, and an eye towards image-heavy narrative. According to FOLA, authenticity and the incorporation of his Yoruba cultural background are important to his craft.
“His music is genuine; you can almost feel every emotion he tries to convey,” Abdulmuqit Idowu, a culture journalist, explains. “The adlibs, melodies, the writing, he means what he says, or at least tries his best to make you believe he means them. That is his superpower.”
In his music, FOLA will leave you anecdotes about his personal life and traces of his philosophies. From early releases like “Who Does That?” featuring Bella Shmurda to recent drops like “eko” and “you”, FOLA maintains an attentive, nearly beguiling persona.
His approach to dissecting desire is free of the brashness associated with contemporary Nigerian music and is grounded in an earnestness that doesn’t feel manufactured. “He always sounds like a real lover, the kind who just pours his heart out in his songs without holding back,” Amarachi Whitney Ibeh, an entrepreneur and another longtime fan, says. “Also, it’s the fact that his music has been able to win me over, and I don’t even understand Yoruba. That’s real artistry.”
A free-flowing process
“FOLA’s process when creating music is less structured.”by Fawazgramz
During our conversation, I learned that FOLA is hard at work preparing for his first UK tour this April. It has been nearly six months since he began planning it, and he’s at that stage where he’s comfortable with the work he’s put in. He promises it will be “mindblowing.” “I’ve been doing a lot of rehearsals, [there’s going to be] a lot of live music and I can’t wait for it,” he says. “You know say na all these things pesin dey pray for. I’ve also been paying a lot of attention to details.”
Conversely, FOLA’s process when creating music is less structured. “There's no manual to it,” he says. FOLA keeps himself open to surprises, allowing his mind to wander and stumble on inspiration at his own time. His process doesn’t begin with a beat, nor with writing lines on paper.
Sometimes it is a melody he records while in the shower. Other times, it’s an anecdote that pops into his head while watching football with friends.
“I actually write the way Jay-Z writes. I write it in my head. I just love to sing, and I don't have a designed creative process.” This explains the conversational delivery of his lyrics, the way his music can sometimes land like a late-night call with a dear friend who is somehow wiser than their age.
As an artist, FOLA is always extending himself in surprising ways. He recently made a short film for “eko”, a string and percussion-heavy Afropop track. The film features Nigeria’s biggest filmmaker, Funke Akindele, who played his mother. According to FOLA, the video is his life’s story. Moving from Ibadan to Lagos brought him closer to all the things he had only seen from afar. And working with Akindele left a lasting impression on him.
“Big love to her. I love her so much. She has taught me to actually stay grounded, a lot like keep walking. But boy, don't get distracted, you know.”
There are a lot of exciting things ahead of FOLA, including an album whose details he is keeping tightly under wraps, but he says to expect a “great body of work and lots of surprises.” For now, though, FOLA is here to guide you through the dizzying experiences of loving, living, yearning, and dreaming as a young Nigerian today. And he’ll do that with a surprising level of honesty that encourages you to be just as open.
