Asake’s latest single and his curtain raiser for the year, “Yoga”, was released by 7pm on a Monday, and its only promo was a snippet he dropped six hours before. Having chosen an obscure time for its release and a laid-back marketing strategy, it was clear the artist banked on the strength of the new single, as well as star power he accumulated throughout last year, to carry his latest release to popular acceptance and familiar chart positions. For the snippet he chose not to reveal his hand, as the 20 second teaser stops just before the actual music begins. We were soon to find out why.
“Yoga” sits some distance off the rest of Asake’s discography. He deviates from the beat-heavy production that fueled his 2022 run in singles like “Sungba”, “PBUY” and “Terminator”; and still manages to avoid the Fuji-laden additions he inserted into Mr. Money With The Vibe to open up its sonic drawer; songs like the vibrant “Joha” and the more spiritual “Dull”. “Yoga” brings all of the spiritual and artistic edges he has displayed throughout his discography, but they are carried here in a different vessel. Asake goes fishing, literally, in the waterside lands of Egun in Badagry, Lagos, and returns with the indigenous music genre that members of the tribe have entertained themselves with for generations.
The track inserts other bits of culture into its nearly 3-minute runtime, most notably on its intro that was provided by a sample of “Mo Capitane” by Michel Legris of Mauritius, allowing Asake to give a nod to Sega music that evolved as a means of expression by slaves of African descent in Mauritius. While delving further into the cultures behind these musical adaptations may swim too far outside this article’s scope, Asake’s eagerness to source cultures to incorporate into his music remains a key attribute; it is the reason why this song can appear so novel without feeling uncharacteristic to him. More importantly, the bravery he displays with the uncelebrated cultures he draws from shows he is more concerned about creating enduring art than hopping on trending sounds.
Asake’s rise to the top has, however, not been quite the paved road headlines will have you believe; for each level he attains he has had to convince doubters. As the breakout artist churning hits in the first half of last year, question marks held over his longevity, and whether he would sustain his run long enough to shrug the tag of “1-hit wonder”. In addition he has endured criticism bordering on his perceived rigidity, which many put down to an inability or unwillingness to explore new sonic territory.
As calls heightened for him (and fellow Street Pop star, Zinoleesky) to attempt new music styles for the sake of ‘diversity’, we noted in a piece released about that time that fans should not be granted the power to cause these changes to a singer’s direction, especially when they continued to stream the same ‘old’ music to the top of the charts. Asake wisely paid no mind to these calls, as he has never offered an illusion of being less than a hundred percent in control of his art.
This pivot in genres, short-lived as it may turn out to be, is therefore set in a context that grants “Yoga” a greater significance than the song itself. This is his response. In one clean blow he crushes the last embers of the talk about the repetitiveness of his music, and puts to bed whatever doubts remained of his longevity—this is after all more than a full year since “Omo Ope” and his instantaneous entry into mainstream Nigerian music.
But these are old tales, and the purveyors of them have given up waiting for his downfall by now. The current clouds over him are mostly contained in a newly woven ‘competition’ with Seyi Vibez, of course conjured by Nigerian music fans that love to goad two rams into a circle they formed and scream “Fight!, Fight!” at them. Asake has made no direct response to this, and with the release of “Yoga” he will not need one. By teleporting himself outside the neo-Fuji–Amapiano zone they both operate in, he proves such comparisons are premature; he is still yet to declare the full extent of his arsenal.
Yoga is a broad term for a group of physical and mental techniques widely used for physical and mental recharge and relaxation. For Asake, who spent the entirety of last year in a music-release frenzy that somehow didn’t compromise on quality, a period of rest and recharge of energies may be in order. Lines like “I dey on my way/ I dey maya/ Make nobody kill my yoga, yoga” tell a different story, though, as they depict a man still yet to hit the heights he envisioned for himself. He brought himself to national fame in 2022, so naturally this year presents the opportunity to take the next step, and if we have learned anything at all from him, it is the power of utilising a single year to skip multiple steps on the path to success.
