Olamide has this little trick he does where he brings an artist out of nowhere, helps to turn them into superstars and makes all paperwork between him and them disappear. Poof!
In keeping with his 2-year artist apprenticeship contract, Baddo confirmed the departure of Adekunle Gold from YBNL Records. His confirmation didn’t come as a surprise either, it has long been rumored that the urban highlife singer had parted ways with the label and was now a free agent. Unlike Lil Kesh though, Adekunle recently disclosed that he doesn’t have his own record label already set up to transition to.
However, that doesn’t mean the much-loved singer wouldn’t have support going forward. In addition to retaining family ties to YBNL, Adekunle Gold has unveiled his official 8-musician band ‘The 79th Element’.
The 79th Element band members are talented and well-known musicians in the industry, they include Micheal Bakare as producer and music director of the band, Oladele Afolabi on the drums, Babatunde Alaba on percussion, Ojekunle Ayodeji on the keyboard, Owa Ayo on base guitar, Femi Leye on lead guitar, Kosoko Adekunbi and Aigbokhan Martins providing backup vocals.
The band was named after the atomic number for Gold in the periodic table and is in line with the singer’s enchantment with the precious metal that includes making it the the suffix of his stage name, the title and cover of his debut album and singing about its symbolic importance to him on the very first song of the project.
I spoke to God, he took me to church oh
He said son you are golden
There’s nothing better, better than gold oh
Now I’m in the light, I am shining bright
It is my time, I’ll live it like it’s gold
The new band is a welcome development and should take Adekunle’s already brilliant stage performances to a different level, as he continues his life after YBNL.