For the second half of 2016, there are three albums whose anticipation has reached fever pitch. These albums are deemed to bring back the feeling of euphoria that good music brings. One of them is Adekunle Gold’s (also known by his government name Adekunle Kosoko), it’s aptly titled debut “Gold”. Adekunle Gold stunned even us by the timing of the album release, which happened two whole days ahead of schedule. But hey, why not if not.

Is there anything more beautiful than GOLD?”

That was King Midas, as he beheld the sheer brilliance of a large gold ring on his finger. This was just about how we felt after the first listen to Adekunle’s seminal work, credits for which we discussed here earlier.

There are a lot of positives that have made the wait for this album worth its weight in GOLD.

After his massive back to back hit singles “Shade”, “Orente”, and “Pick Up”, not a few people agreed that this young man raised the bar for himself and wondered if he could meet his own standards in an album. Also, the clamor for a duet with his alleged heartthrob, the beautiful Simi, finally got sated.

If speaking is silver, then listening is GOLD ~ Turkish proverb

So lets dive into this glittering work of art.

How does one introduce gold? By forging a track that softly jolts the auditory nerves into attention, notifying them of the arrival of something sublime about to escape from the speakers. That is what the opening track of Adekunle’s first attempt at an album,“Gold”, did exactly. He reminds the listener of how far back he started preparing for this rite of passage, a passage that opens his treasure chest of many talents, and presents him to the world in all his glitter.

With a rock styled opening, the song “Temptation” talks about his belief in friendship and trust.It was as if he brought the much awaited continuation of the mini musical movie featuring Simi and Falz off the runaway hit Soldier.

The story is about his friend, an unsmiling, no nonsense soldier, away at a battlefront, whose wife, a certain “Damilola”, who Adekunle described as both beautiful and sexy, is unto him like butter on bread. He talks about how he managed to evade wahala by being a straight arrow.

I imagine a fully robed out choir, with near-holy hands raised and Adekunle conducting them into celestial convulsion.

In “Paradise”, one is suddenly thrown up into a cloud of percussion instruments. Even Adekunle seemed already in rapture and could not get enough of what he was about to cook that he had to tell his sound engineer “Bami incrisi e die” (translation: increase the volume of the drums a little higher). I imagine a fully robed out choir, with near-holy hands raised and Adekunle conducting them into celestial convulsion. The video of this particular should be fire!!

Adekunle did great, he did not forget to add “No Forget” a collaboration between him and Simi, the only feature on this masterpiece. This must mean something, something that puts a pin in the balloon of rumors. I digress.

When the drums rolled at the start of the track, little did we know it was an announcement of possibly the biggest duet in Nigeria in 2016. He could be heard appealing to his girl not to forget how far they have come and why she must not allow the sweet mouth of Nigerian guys to sway her when he is gone on his travels. His girl is Simi. One was filled with joy when she responded with an assurance of how she is so in love with him and is bent on waiting for him to return from his musical sojourn with hopes of his love for her intact, and him bearing prosperity and goodies for her.

Make you hustle wela
Buy me Panamera
No follow Bella
She can’t love you better

“My life” reintroduces you to the good old days of Juju music, but in a way only Adekunle can. Players on bata drums welcome and commandeer a track that will whip an owambe party into a frenzy, from Isale Eko all the way to Houston and the Nigerian habitats of Peckham. Watch out for massive plays of this track at your aso-ebi themed events any of these weekends.

First Opportunity is the GOLDEN opportunity ~ Amit Kalantri

When Amit Kalantri, an Indian said this, little did he know he was speaking of the multi-talented Adekunle Gold and what he was going to do with his debut album. It was no surprise then that he infused Indian beats into the song “Ariwo Ko” (music is not noise), complete with an Indian sounding lady for backup. The song seemed to be bragging about how well he has done musically because of the quality of his work, it also seemed took shots at pangolo musicians and certain rich kids in the industry:

Enu oshe enu oshe
Ariwo ko ni music o
Empty barrel lo ma n pariwo
……………..

Your papa get money you dey do anyhow
stepping on the poor, you forget tomorrow
Oluwa lo fun e, iwo na ko o

Coupled with the already established hit singles, this album comes from a deep place of artistic excellence, a place of “I either get it right first time or go home”. It deserves applause.

Buy this wonderful work of art here.