Blaqbonez opens up on how a London bar test run led to Chanel with Asake, and how Asake sent back his Ikebe 3000 verse in under 24 hours. Here’s the full gist.
Blaqbonez didn’t think he’d made anything special when he recorded ‘Chanel’. It took a night out in London and a room of people asking for a replay to change his mind. The rapper has now shared how his two hit songs with Asake, ‘Chanel’ and ‘Ikebe 3000′, came together, in an account published on Memories FM, a platform that archives artists’ stories about their music.
He recorded ‘Chanel’ in Lagos in February 2026. Since he makes music almost every day, the song didn’t stand out at first. Then in April he travelled to London for a show. Instead of heading to the usual after-party at a club, he took about 20 people from the show to Doña, an underground bar in Dalston, where a cousin of his worked and had offered to open the place. He played a few unreleased songs through the sound system, and ‘Chanel’ kept getting requests to run it back.
The next day, he posted a video of himself enjoying the song, and it got a lot of attention online. That gave him a clearer idea of what he had. He sent the record to Asake on Instagram. They’d talked about working together before, but he’d been waiting for the right song. They linked up in Nigeria to record it, then flew to London to shoot the video. ‘Chanel’ went on to hit No. 1 on Apple Music Nigeria’s Top Songs chart and has passed 25.7 million streams on Spotify.
‘Ikebe 3000’ had a very different beginning. Blaqbonez recorded the first version in June at a friend’s studio in Lagos, and it was a hot one, literally. There was no air conditioning, and the heat got so bad that everyone had to take off their shirts. He held on to the song until August, when he and Asake were chatting about how well ‘Chanel’ had done and decided to make another one, this time something more dance-leaning.
Asake was in Los Angeles after a show when the song reached him. According to Blaqbonez, he woke up to a call from Asake playing the verse he had just recorded. The whole thing took less than 24 hours. They also played with South African Gqom influences, and he says neither of them knew how big it would become.
It topped both the Spotify Nigeria and Apple Music Nigeria charts and debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart. As with ‘Chanel’, they kept it under wraps until release and shot the video in London. Blaqbonez also says it’s Asake’s favourite song of the ones they’ve made together.
Two songs, two very different starting points, one from a bar’s speakers and one from a sweaty studio. Sometimes the record you almost overlook is the one everybody else has been waiting to hear.
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