If you have never heard of Lade, perhaps an excellent place to start is the 2020 Airtel “444” commercial. The jingle is still one of the most popular ads created by Airtel because of the use of certain trendy words, the beat, and most significantly, the voice behind the jingle. Although Lade had already worked with brands like Smoov, Maltina, Lacasera, and many more, people didn’t know the face behind the voice. They often mistook her for Teni, the entertainer, but the “444” jingle brought her into the spotlight and was a defining moment in her career as a musician. In 2021, Lade released her debut single “Kunle,” a song about heartbreak, and in the same year, she released her debut EP tagged “Omolade The EP.” Now, she has released one of 2022 hit songs, “Adulthood Anthem.”
After releasing the shorter version of the song on social media, it immediately went viral; lots of people were dancing to it and creating content around the song, and fans began to ask for the whole song. For an independent artist, Lade is doing great with “Adulthood Anthem”; the song has over 2 million streams across several music streaming platforms and over 3 million plays on her Tik-Tok account, and the numbers keep increasing. One fun fact about the song is that the shorter version was released on Children’s day. Aside from celebrating children, it is also a day most adults remember how easy life was when they were children, and these songs brought their thoughts to life hence, its instant popularity. It doesn’t mean that the song wouldn’t have had the impact it has now; it might still have been a success, but the day it was released played a significant role in its success. It is also interesting to know that “Adulthood Anthem” was supposed to be a love song, and Lade didn’t plan on releasing a full song after the shorter version. But judging from listeners’ demand for the song and its success, it only made sense to release “Adulthood Anthem.” What if “Adulthood Anthem” was never recorded? Do you think the song would have been hit if it was a love song?
One thing that makes the song unique is how relatable the song is. I mean, you would hear lyrics like, “As I wake up this morning, landlord don call me. My padi don ring my phone say wey that thing wey you promise me. I no say you no go believe dem no tell me say an, so e dey be. Abegi take me back to days when e be say na just to play and chop ohh,” and you would begin to think of rent, sending urgent 2k and surviving on your own. Being an adult is not easy, especially in a country like Nigeria, where people are plagued with factors like inflation, corruption, insecurity, unemployment, epileptic power supply, poor healthcare services, etc. Many other things make adults wish they were children again, “Leave me I wan become child again, I wan become child again. I want to play inside the rain.”
“Now I gast send the money lole oh,” when Lade gets to this part, the burden of the black tax weighs in on the listener’s mind. Black tax is another chain that comes with being an adult; nobody gives you money anymore; now you have to send money home because you are an adult. Lade’s “Adulthood Anthem” is a song that talks about how rocky adulthood can be, the various responsibilities attached to it, and a reminder that adulthood can be a little easy with the right soundtrack. Production credit goes to Mr. Soul. Listen to “Adulthood Anthem” here and let us know your thoughts about the song.
