Review: On Yoga, Asake departs the street for fortification in Dakar

Seyi Vibez feeding off Asake‘s chant-like music, erupted with a foresight of different sorts from critics and fans alike. The worst, and more importantly, the most laughable is the prediction that Seyi Vibez would mark the end of Asake: this was predicted to happen secondly if Asake does not immediately wear out owing to the sameness of his hit singles in the year 2022.

Portable recently weighed in on the argument in favor of Asake‘s fans: Portable, too, like many other critics, believes Asake‘s sound was what Seyi Vibez built on. And although, Asake seems to give a response to Seyi Vibez with the “para pass para” line on the Yoga song (Seyi Vibez refers to himself as Para Boy): the entire single has just proven Asake is on a race of his own.

Asake spent the better of January 2023 on vacation in Senegal, bearing the thought of restructuring in mind. Consequently, a rumor broke out that he was in a secret affair with an American actress whose company he shared at the 2023 AFRIMMA. He was later seen in the company of a group of Senegalese drummers, taking the lead at a rehearsal. 

This and some other unpublished personal discoveries about the music of the Senegalese people must have birthed the song Yoga. The drumbeats and violin notes played strongly link Yoga to the music of Amadou & Mariam, a Grammy-nominated duo from Mali.

Asake noting his departure or being “on my away” from home is even menacing: and when one is thinking about that statement, one understands the warning that follows: “make nobody kill my yoga” or “end my reign.”

Though the idea of Yoga as a practice or discipline in ancient India is spiritual notwithstanding, the spirituality of Asake‘s single is entirely African. Putting Dakar and the culture of Senegal into consideration, Asake, seeming to be abandoning the street for its recent compromise or competition, delivers a highly meditative piece on some mind-controlling African drumbeats. The song is more cultural than it is commercial.

With the aid of TG Omori‘s directed visuals, Asake explores the source of an untapped African sound, African barbarism, the continent’s wrestling, canoeing and fishing, meditation, spirituality and the idea of journeying in West African traditional beliefs.

Though Asake continues clutch to his Fuji blend, his recent attitude of using a vacation to improve his art is a highly commendable innovation. The exploration of another African sound and the possibility of the sound going mainstream as a result even thrills the mind more. 

Even if Yoga is a finger poking at naysayers’ faces, the dearness of the piece to vulnerable hearts is waiting to be celebrated globally. The charm overrides the heat of the moment to hand Asake a renewed pace ahead of other sprinters in the music race.

• Ratings: 7.2/10