From The Curator at BlackFM
There is something rather agreeable about a musician who announces his intentions with the unhurried confidence of a man who knows precisely where he stands in the world. BNXN, the Nigerian singer whose voice has become one of the more distinctive instruments in contemporary Afrobeats, has done just that, confirming both the title and release date of his forthcoming EP. It is called Still In Charge, a title that, whether by accident or design, carries the faint whiff of a statement of intent, and it is scheduled to arrive on Thursday, 1 October 2026. The BNXN Still In Charge EP has been confirmed via an announcement shared ahead of release, and according to reporting from NotJustOk, the project will feature appearances from Asake and FOLA, two names that carry considerable weight within the current Afrobeats firmament.
For those who have followed BNXN’s trajectory with any attentiveness, this latest development will come as no great surprise, merely as confirmation of a pattern. He is, after all, an artist who has made something of a habit of adding to his discography with the regularity of a craftsman who understands that reputation is built not by grand gestures alone but by the steady accumulation of good work.
A Title With Some Swagger
Titles matter in popular music rather more than is sometimes acknowledged. They set a tone before a single note has been heard, and Still In Charge does precisely that, suggesting an artist unwilling to cede ground in a genre that has, in recent years, become rather crowded with contenders. Afrobeats, for the uninitiated, has travelled a considerable distance from its Lagos and Accra origins to become one of the most vital exports in global popular music, its rhythms now as familiar on the dancefloors of London and Los Angeles as they are in the clubs of its West African birthplace. Within that landscape, BNXN has carved out a niche that combines melodic sensitivity with a certain rugged authenticity, and the choice of collaborators for this new project suggests he intends to keep good company as he does so.
Asake’s involvement will doubtless generate the greater share of excitement, given his own remarkable ascent within the genre and the distinctive sonic signature he has cultivated, one that blends Fuji-inflected vocal textures with contemporary production in a manner that has proven both critically admired and commercially formidable. FOLA, meanwhile, brings a complementary sensibility to proceedings, and the pairing of the two alongside BNXN suggests a project that has been assembled with some care rather than thrown together for the sake of star power alone.
What We Know, and What Remains Unrevealed
It must be said, in the interests of proper reporting, that the finer details of Still In Charge remain, for the moment, tantalisingly withheld. Neither the tracklist nor the production credits have yet been made public, a state of affairs that will no doubt frustrate the more impatient corners of the fanbase but which is, in truth, entirely consistent with how such announcements are typically staged in this industry. A title and a release date are the opening gambit; the rest, one presumes, will follow in due course as the release date draws nearer.
The announcement itself was made public ahead of the EP’s release, with BNXN confirming the news directly, and the timing, coming as it does amid what NotJustOk describes as his continued “strong presence in the Nigerian music scene through new releases and collaborations,” feels entirely in keeping with an artist unwilling to let momentum slacken. There is a lesson here, perhaps, for those who study the mechanics of a well-managed career: that visibility, sustained through frequent and varied output, is itself a form of currency in an industry where attention spans have grown notoriously short.
Anticipation Building Toward October
With the release date now fixed for 1 October 2026, the industry and its followers have something concrete to anticipate, even in the absence of further specifics. Such announcements, brief as they may be, have a way of generating their own momentum, particularly when the collaborators involved carry the sort of reputational heft that Asake and FOLA bring to the table. One rather suspects that the coming months will see a steady drip of further detail, in the manner these things are customarily managed, building toward the eventual full reveal.
For now, though, what we have is sufficient: a title that hints at ambition, a date circled on the calendar, and two guest artists whose presence alone guarantees that Still In Charge will be a project worth paying attention to when it finally arrives. The BNXN Still In Charge EP may still be shrouded in some mystery regarding its contents, but as an exercise in building anticipation, the announcement has already done its job rather well.
Source: notjustok.com. Keep listening on BlackFM Afrobeats radio.
