Asake Talks Billboard Chart Success, Crazy Live Shows, Growth of Afrobeats & More | Billboard News

Asake shares how he feels about his success on the Billboard charts with his first album, Mr. Money With the Vibe, how his second album (Work of Art) is different, his crazy live shows, how the Afrobeats genre has grown across the globe, his mindset on collaborations, his dream collab and more!

Asake:
The only thing I could remember is I tried to do, you know, the dance they do in Nigeria where everybody do like this.

Hi! What’s up, everybody? It’s your boy, Asake — aka Mr. Money With the Vibe — right now, and you’re watching Billboard News.

Tetris Kelly:
It’s Tetris with Billboard News. Today, we got Mr. Afrobeats himself, Asake.

Thanks for coming to hanging out with us. Let’s talk about the genre itself. OK, so Afrobeats is obviously having this huge explosion globally. So how’s it feel from the artists standpoint, seeing your genre blow up like that?

Asake:
I think it’s a good thing. You know, it’s like you having a baby, and your baby’s growing. You know, you feel good when you have something around you and the thing is growing, and I feel like in a couple of years or in years to come, it will be bigger.

Tetris Kelly:
Well, speaking of getting bigger, I mean, next year will be the first year the Grammys ever have a category — best African musical performance — so that’s huge. Do you think that’s going to affect the genre? Like, are you even thinking like, “I want to be Grammy nominated?”

Asake:
No, it’s never going to affect anything. Like, everybody wants to be big. So if the whole genre is bigger, that means there is the happiness of the whole country, you know, it’s the happiness of everybody.