Adekunle Kosoko a.k.a Adekunle Gold has been one of the breakthrough artistes of this year. The handsome ebony-skinned vocalist who rose into limelight following the wide acceptance of his single "Sade" was born into a royal family of Lagos.
Sade which was originally written for a girl who rejected Adekunle's dating proposal has turned out to be the perfect indigenous
"marry me" song of the year and it owes this largely to the contribution of YBNL boss Olamide's effort into promoting the debut effort from his Record Label's act despite it been a cover song for a One Direction song.
Considering the efforts and promotion YBNL has put towards pushing its foremost acts , Olamide and Lil Kesh it is unsurprising to see that they are arguably the biggest group in Nigeria or closely following the Mavins Records.
Also on the continent, YBNL is a well known music group but they are yet to fully explore the global market in terms of sales, ratings, recognition and collaborations. I cannot recall if any of the label's acts have been nominated for the BET's, MTV's and there is yet to be any notable international collaboration with an international artiste.
This is where Adekunle Gold comes in. In a label where the style of its two foremost artistes is almost all crafted for just the Nigerian market, Adekunle Gold's seems to be the dark-horse in the label whose style of Music would appeal more to the international audience for recognition and acceptance despite language barriers as he totally deviates from the
'hit-of-the-moment' kind of music ,Olamide and Lil Kesh makes into a more matured, all audience friendly and evergreen kind of Music which makes him unique and stand out from other Music revelations this year.
He does not make music to play to the crowd's needs, he makes Music which the crowd would finally crave for. Music which lyrics can be dissected and still in it one would find realism, perfect storylines and a concrete meaning. No insult intended towards
'King Baddo' himself as well as
'Keshi' but Adekunle Gold seems to be the only act in the label whose style of music is most meaningful and has evergreen capabilities.
This been said, it is rather important the label focuses more resources on the singer and with the kind of 'love' he gets from music lovers, he might just be the artiste whose kind of music shoots the label to the global fore in the same light Asa and Nneka's music has made them global icons.
The world music scene does not strive on song dance-ability or popularity but on the brilliance of the artiste' lyrics and proper renditions. In both categories
.
Adekunle Gold's 'Sade' and 'Orente' clearly flaws every other artiste's in the label songs. He is clearly the dark horse and most talented of the lot. It is a little too early to judge but let's keep our fingers crossed and see what the Sade crooner offers as time goes on.
Long live Adekunle Gold,
Long live YBNL,
Long live the Nigerian Music Industry
