Afrobeats star Adekunle Gold has opened up about his decision to keep the featured artists on his latest album, FUJI, hidden until its release.
Speaking in an interview on Cool FM, the singer said he deliberately withheld the collaborators’ names to ensure listeners focused on the music itself rather than the hype around guest appearances.
“The only thing that mattered was music, the song, not the optics of it, not who’s on it,” Adekunle Gold said, stressing that his goal was to create a deeper, more immersive listening experience.
He explained that audiences have become increasingly fixated on who is featured on a track, often overlooking the art and message of the music. By keeping the features a surprise, he wanted fans to enjoy the album “from start to finish without distractions.”
He said: “Because I feel like I feel like we’re so spoiled now that we just don’t even understand how to enjoy music anymore.
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“When I made my first album, I had only one feature. And was it my one of my greatest work? Yes. So I’m like, you know, I need to go back to simpler times when what matters to me is the music, not okay, who’s on it? Yeah, I need you to enjoy the music.
“Whoever voice you hear on it and all of that. Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll reveal it later to you.
“But first, before fixating on Oh, I need to listen to this one because somebody’s on it. Yeah, enjoy the journey. Yeah, I crafted this album intentionally.
“That’s why I said, listen to it from top to bottom. Because that’s the only way normal people should listen to music.
“Why would you want to skip just because there’s a feature there and then it makes no sense. I mean, because I make music and I am very intentional about how I make my music as well. So I hid the feature intentionally because I want to enjoy the music or do all the guesswork you want to do and all of that just enjoy the music. And then you can find out”.
