Adekunle Gold’s career has been a meandering one, in the most positive way. He has evolved and carried us along the entire way, changing looks, sounds, and style to completely embody the music and the person he is at that time.
The first track off his new album, Fuji, musically explores that journey, declaring that the small fish has grown to the big fish. This may be his most braggadocious album yet. He sounds confident and ready to take the place as one of Nigeria’s top artists – that’s one of the primary themes of the album.
The Fuji talking drums make their introduction early on the album on the song ‘Bobo’ featuring Lojay and Shoday – another song celebrating success and authority. This theme is one of the primary themes in afrobeats and has been for a long while. In the historically masculine atmosphere of the genre, artists have always beaten their chest to declare dominance. A subgroup of this theme is the phenomenon of money shaming, which has gained popularity initially with the DJ hypeman culture and concurrently in our music. AG Baby leans into this, singing on Coco Money, ‘If you’re not spending money, go, go, go’.
The first love song appears late, about midway through the album. This may be the side of this musician that we are more familiar with, and a welcome switch from the up-tempo dance boasting. On the song, ‘My Love Is The Same’, he reassures his lover of his feelings even while he’s pursuing financial gain in the insecure Nigerian context. He explores love further with 6lack on the track ‘Love Is An Action’, which includes a playful interpolation of the original Bobby Caldwell song and features the American musician attempting Nigerian pidgin.
Other themes on the album include the temptation of the available women that success brings,and spiritual overtures for heavenly guidance.
In the end, it’s just an afrobeats album, and not a substantial exploration of Fuji music like the album name suggests. He flirts with the Fuji rhythm extensively on songs like Many People, and sections of Big Fish, Bobo and Obimo. The album is an enjoyable offering from a self-assured musician at the top of his game; however, the themes are completely pop-oriented with very little depth of attention to the world outside of AG’s success, which is fair but ultimately superficial like most afrobeats albums. It’s a great sonic offering and not much else.
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Adekunle Gold’s Fuji is a confident statement from an artist fully aware of his evolution. Over the years, AG Baby has shifted seamlessly through sounds and personas, but this time he plants his flag – declaring himself a “big fish” in Nigeria’s pop ocean. The album is his most self-assured and braggadocious yet, steeped in themes of success, dominance, and self-celebration.
Fuji rhythms make an early appearance on Bobo, featuring Lojay and Shoday, where talking drums, swagger, and the culture of “money shaming” collide. On Coco Money, he leans all the way in, chanting, “If you’re not spending money, go, go, go.” It’s the familiar Afrobeats world of wealth and confidence.
Midway through, the album softens. Tracks like My Love Is The Same and Love Is An Action (with 6lack) bring back the tender romanticism that first endeared Adekunle Gold to fans. Even as he boasts of success, he’s aware of its emotional cost, grounding the album’s high-energy moments with flashes of intimacy and reflection.
Despite its title, Fuji isn’t a deep dive into the traditional genre; it only borrows its percussive textures and rhythmic feel. What it is, instead, is a sleek, pop-forward celebration of an artist at his peak: confident, and fully enjoying the fruits of his success, even if it doesn’t say much beyond that.