Time and again, ‘Bad Boys’ crooner, Bolu Ajibade has proven that afrobeats has a sound that’s more romantic than given credit for. From Ibadan in Nigeria to the frigid north, Bolu has strung the heart strings of afrobeats lovers since 2018 until present. If this is your first time hearing about him, there’s more than enough seats and you’re cordially invited to ride his soulful wave with the rest of us. Here are a few releases from his studio sessions and songbooks and where you can experience this afrofusion star live on stage.
He debuted his musical stylings, as aforementioned, in 2018 with an afro-reggae tune titled ‘Koba’. ‘Koba’ is a popular Yoruba phrase meaning ‘to implicate someone’. Bolu begs his love interest not to koba him as she moves to his dance inducing sound.
Since then, he has evolved, not just as an upcoming artist but as one of many key architects of the Afrobeats-in-Canada movement. Earmaking himself as a truly Canadian voice of afrobeats, he joined forces with fellow artistes, Tome and Godflow, on the trilingual collaboration ‘Addicted’ fusing French, Yoruba and English in one melodic groove in April 2024.
It’s no news that the music scene cross-continentally boasts a very high barrier of entry. Bolu expertly navigates this industry by putting down corporative roots both home and abroad. Shortly after his 2019 singles ‘Omalicha’ and ‘Bother Me’, he featured an afrobeats household name on his first collab in 2020 as precursor to his first ever EP, titled ‘Stranger’.
‘Stranger’ is a 6 track playlist with nothing but hits from promising ‘anything for Onome’ on ‘Old Soldier’ with BNXN to finding his ‘one in a milli lilli’ in ‘Stranger’.
In a scene where Canada’s afrobeats presence is growing faster than a traffic jam on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway on a Friday night, Bolu Ajibade isn’t just riding the momentum, he’s steering it. At least almost 350,000 monthly listeners on spotify strongly suggest so.
This figure is evidenced by the whirlwind of recognition his sound has garnered in 2025 alone. This year, Bolu released a new 3 song EP – ‘DIANA’ – right after he opened for the president of Plutomania, Shallipopi at Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto on the 14th of September.
If you didn’t catch that performance, then hopefully you were present on the 28th for his electric set at The MOD club for Toronto’s Nigerian Independence event. In keeping with that momentum, Bolu didn’t miss a beat as he showed up for a similar event to celebrate his country of origin in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Because Bolu Ajibade makes music that feels good. He’s proof that Afrobeats rarely loses its flavor when it crosses the Atlantic. It only picks up a new accent and wears a winter coat to match. Every track drips with love and the unmistakable warmth of West Africa’s rhythm.
