Singer Adekunle Gold’s Afro Pop Vol. 1 is enjoying rave reviews, with many hailing it as a great transition for the artist. But he has disclosed that it isn’t really what fans think it is.
In a recent interview with Pulse, the famous singer dished on his new album which was released on Friday, August 21, 2020, saying that he never intended to change anything about his music in the first place.
His words:
“I wouldn’t exactly call it a rebrand. I don’t think I ever really set out to change anything because of what people were saying. I get why it might look like [it’s about comments], and that would be fair, but nah, it’s not.
It’s just about who I am naturally. I don’t think I would be here if my career was about people’s comments. I mean, no man is an island… But, the idea for Afro-pop was born while I was making my debut album, Gold – it dropped on July 25, 2016. It was then that I realized that I wanted my next album to sound more pop.
While I was working on About 30 – which I felt needed to be heard first, I commenced work on the vision for Afro-pop. Then in November 2017, I had a conversation with Niyi – my manager – that I wanted to do something different. Three years later, I’m actually doing it. With this in mind, you might understand that it’s just how I am.
I just wanted to do Afro-pop and that’s it. I was feeling like, ‘Kelegbe Megbe’ and ‘Something Different’ right from 2017 and even had the album title. To be honest, I changed my sound to Highlife around the middle of the decade.”
Addressing fan reactions and the necessity of change, Adekunle Gold said:
If you live your life for validation, it will be hard to change and when you don’t change, you will forever live in a decorated box where people put you. If I hadn’t done what I wanted to do, I would have been classified a legend barely three years after my debut album because people were already likening me to legends.
And when people call you a legend when they shouldn’t, it’s a decent way of saying, ‘You’re good at that, but it’s okay.’ Unknowingly, fans give artists a room – or a number of years – to shine and once that elapses, you’re overdoing it.
When I came out, I was hot in my first three years. If I had continued doing the same thing, there would have been no room to talk about me like they are now. What’s important to me is that I express myself with freedom. What would break me and kill me is if I find myself in a box where I only wear kampala and sing in Yoruba.”
