For listeners of a certain age, Pasuma has always been a visionary. “Jealousy,” his 1999 hit collaboration with Nigerian hip-hop group Remedies set the tone for a series of 2000s Afropop-leaning collabs that found even broader expression in his genre-blending 2016 album My World. A decade after My World’s release, the beloved fújì star is still at the forefront of the conversation, advancing the fusion of fújì and contemporary Afrobeats on the aptly named FUJI AFRO. The album opens with “FAAJA,” a soul-indebted promise of better days on the horizon. On “PREMIUM,” Pasuma’s laying down the plays for a party and reminding listeners of his standing in the same breath: “If you don’t know, awa ni baba yin,” he sings. As he’s proven countless times over the years, Pasuma is keenly interested in the possibilities that exist outside his wheelhouse, and FUJI AFRO doubles down on that experimentalist outlook. Guided by highly regarded street-pop producer 2T UPONDEEBEATZ, Pasuma explores new vocal textures and flows while foregrounding the lyrical rigor requisite for a fújì star. When guests show up, they complement Pasuma’s vision. Tungba star Qdot is recruited for a denunciation of haters and naysayers, before neo-apala singer Terry Apala helps the veteran artist close out the album with a boisterous statement about the timelessness of Yoruba oral music.