Nigerian singer Adekunle Gold has revealed how a single tweet from American music icon Pharrell Williams more than a decade ago completely transformed his mindset and set him on the path to superstardom.
Speaking on the One54 Africa podcast, the Afrobeats star recalled coming across Pharrell’s tweet in 2011 or 2013 that read: **”You are already that person…just put yourself in that place”** .
“I saw his tweet. I think the tweet was in 2010 or something. He said you are that person. Put yourself in that place,” Gold said on the podcast.
“That was his tweet. I saw that tweet and that changed the way I thought about myself. The way I felt about my talents, things that I was good at, and I started to embody that.”
Gold explained that the words shifted his entire perspective and gave him the confidence to carry himself differently.
“So I started thinking like, yeah, I’m a rock star. And then I started to move that way. Embody it,” he said.
“That’s one person that I always loved — incredible musician, so cool, fashion guy. So it’s like a mentor that didn’t know I existed.”
Gold said Pharrell became the benchmark he dreamed of working with, and he actively manifested the collaboration.
“When I was making my 2023 album, I was signed to Def Jam. Tuni is my CEO, my friend. I told him, bro, I don’t know how it’s going to happen, I want to work with Pharrell on this album,” he recounted.
The singer explained how a series of fortunate events led to the collaboration, including a chance encounter on a plane between his CEO and Nile Rodgers.
“Tuni had spoken to Pharrell about me. Pharrell already took interest like, yeah, it’ll be nice, let’s link up. So we were supposed to go to Miami to meet Pharrell,” Gold said.
“Tuni then ran into Nile Rodgers on the plane. I think they sat beside each other. And he said, ‘Oh, my boy wants to work with you.’ He showed Nile Rodgers my message.”
Gold described the surreal moment when he was in the studio with Pharrell and Nile Rodgers walked in with his guitar.
“I was already in awe. I was in Miami, I was with Pharrell. We’re already working. I was already like, it’s happening. It’s going down,” he said.
“And then Nile Rodgers came in with his guitar. Bro, I wanted to die. Like, what the hell?”
The collaboration resulted in the song “Falling Up,” which Gold described as one of the most unforgettable experiences of his life.
“Both of them, we made a song together, and I think that’s one experience in my life that I can never forget,” he said.
Gold even got a tattoo inspired by Pharrell’s words to him. The producer had watched him work and described his creative process in a unique way.
“We were making music and he looked at me. He said, ‘When people make music, when people write, people just throw melodies out there. But you, you wait for the best one and then you throw it out,'” Gold recalled.
“I’m like, nobody has ever described it that way. And he said, ‘You’re like a unicorn with a crazy antenna. You picked the best one.'”
The Nigerian star explained his songwriting process, which Pharrell had observed: “The music is playing, the beat is playing, and you just sing whatever comes to you. Melodies, no words sometimes.”
“I can spend like two hours finding melodies, three hours sometimes, just trying to find. I just let my mind travel, do wherever it takes me,” Gold said.
Gold has previously spoken about how Pharrell’s words changed his life, telling Apple Music Africa Now Radio in 2023: “Pharrell changed my life with this tweet. I stopped being afraid and I started to put myself out there more, moving like a superstar” .
“One of the things I tell people is if you believe in yourself, you rig the game. You rig the game by just being yourself. Those words changed my life, and working with Pharrell on this album? An absolute beauty. Everything about this album is a manifestation that’s happened already” .
Pharrell himself later praised Gold on social media, writing: “@adekunleGOLD you already know…you are blessed and favoured…So even when they try to push you down…still…you will be ‘falling up’…God is the greatest, period” .
