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Fireboy DML VibeZ

Fireboy DML sings Afrobeats like a soul singer who wandered into the wrong studio and decided to stay. Twenty-two tracks of a writer who takes melody seriously.

The Nigerian songwriter's songwriter

Adedamola Adefolahan, from Abeokuta in Ogun State, studied English literature at Obafemi Awolowo University before signing to Olamide's YBNL Nation — and the literature degree is not incidental. In a genre where the groove usually carries the record, Fireboy built his reputation on writing: full verses, developed melodies, songs that hold up when you strip the percussion away.

His 2019 debut Laughter, Tears & Goosebumps established him as an album artist rather than a singles artist, unusual at the time. Then "Peru" happened. Released in 2021 and later remixed with Ed Sheeran, it became one of the biggest African records of its era and pulled him fully onto the global stage — a stage he has since shared with Madonna, Jax Jones and others.

What to listen for

The playlist opens with a Peace Control Remix of "Peru" rather than the original, which is a nice choice — it lets you hear how portable the song is. "Frozen" is the Madonna and Sickick remix, an odd artifact that mostly demonstrates how far his voice will travel.

The core of his own work is in the middle. "Like I Do," "Lifestyle," "Airplane Mode" and "hell and back" are the tracks where the writing shows — verses that develop rather than repeat, and choruses that arrive because the verse earned them. "everyday" and "obaa sima" sit at the softer, more introspective end.

The collaborations map his position in the scene: "Compromise" with Rema, "Uptown Disco" with Olamide and Asake, "Sere" with SPINALL, "Angelina" with Johnny Drille, "Running" with LADIPOE. Each pairing pulls something different out of him, which is the mark of a genuinely flexible singer.

"Me and My Guitar" with Jax Jones is the outlier — house-tempo, built for European clubs — and it works better than it has any right to.

Twenty-two tracks. Listen to the verses.

Go deeper

Laughter, Tears & Goosebumps (2019) and Apollo (2020) are the two albums to hear in full — they make the case for him as a writer far better than any singles run can.

For the label context, YBNL Nation under Olamide has an extraordinary record for developing artists; Asake is the other graduate who became a phenomenon.

Among his peers, Joeboy shares the melodic sensibility, Oxlade the vocal warmth, and Johnny Drille — who features here — is the closest Nigerian pop has to a folk singer-songwriter. If the writing is what draws you, that is the direction to go.

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