Fuji By Adekunle Gold
On his sixth studio album, Fuji, Adekunle Gold reflects on his life, culture and the music that has shaped his sound today.
As a person who grew up in Lagos, I recognize Fuji [the genre] as a layered sound that permeates the streets with deep cultural expression and this album infuses the percussive and invigorating rhythms of the expansive genre with global inflections that fit perfectly into Gold’s musical universe.
Gold told Apple Music "My album [title] started as an acronym, Finding Uncharted Journeys Inside. But I’m already making fújì sounds; Since my first album “Gold”, I have a fújì-sounding song on every album. Even if I sing R&B, I sound fújì. So I might as well show the world this sound that I grew up on."
Adekunle Gold has come a long way from his photoshop days, music has taken him around the world and with this album, he calls on the sound that drew him into the embrace of music, celebrates it and presents it in a modern context.
Fuji, a Yoruba musical phenomenon that dates back to the late 1960s, has historically been experienced with live bands and this album feels just as raw, alive and authentic as any Fuji record of the years past.
The production and layered instrumentation of traditional Yoruba instruments such as the talking drum [gangan] with modern instruments such as electric guitars, flute, synthesizers, piano, violin etc, heard in this album is truly sensational to listen to.
He roots Fuji in the global conversation of dance music as the vibrant energy of the genre is felt through out this album.
Fuji explores Gold's ideas of love, be it romantic or familial in songs like Believe, My Love Is The Same, a song dedicated to his daughter, Love Is An Action ft. 6lack, Lailo and Obimo, as well as the pride and wealth that comes with success in songs such as Big Fish, Don Corleone, Coco Money.
Fuji also acts as a medium of self-reflection as heard in songs like I'm not Done ft. Grammy award winning producer Robert Glasper and Simile ft. Soweto Gospel Choir & 79th element. Gold incorporates elements such as his wife and daughter's voices to remind you that this is a wholesome project created by a true lover-man. He emphasizes what love means to him with an album presented as a monument made to appreciate his family, culture and the man they have made him.
This record also stands as an epitome of what great sampling within African music can look like as he plays with samples such as Bitch Better Have My Money [in Coco Money], What You Won't Do For Love [in Love Is An Action], and incorporates voices of key Fuji artists such as Yinka Ayefele and Adewale Ayuba.
With a song like Attack ft. Cruel Santino, Mavo & Tkay Maidza, Adekunle Gold is reminding us that his ears are always on the ground and he enjoys incorporating alternative sounds into his universe. There are a few songs on this album that I believe will stand the test of time and will be african classics. Many People ft. Yinka Ayefele is one of them and I will almost say it embodies the energy of fuji so well, especially with the playful call-and-response fuji is known for, incorporated into this song.
A few songs such as Oba and Only God Can Save Me ft. Davido; a song about temptation to cheat, incorporate strings and elements that embody afro-latin energy and merge these cultural worlds.
Gold is saying, fuji already exists everywhere and it should continue to.
Fuji is a genre of love, complexity, energy, community and celebration and this album reflects all that and more in a way that feels true to Adekunle Gold's sound.