When people walked into Insert Nights: M$NEY Edition, WeTalkSound’s collaboration with Spotify celebrating Asake’s latest album, they expected the music, the atmosphere and the community that have come to define the series. What they probably didn’t expect was to leave with something they couldn’t stream, repost or recreate: experiencing an original art piece commissioned exclusively for the night.
Rather than producing just another piece of event collateral, the team wanted to create something that felt like an extension of the M$NEY universe itself. Something attendees would pin to their walls years from now and remember exactly where they got it. The aim was to produce something that felt more like a collectible than standard-fare event merchandise.
That idea became the starting point for a limited-edition poster illustrated by Lagos-based artist Shalom Ojo.
It also hinged on building an extension of a world that already existed. Asake’s M$NEY era arrived with one of his most striking visual identities yet. The marble bust at the centre of the album artwork immediately evokes permanence, legacy and transformation, presenting Asake not just as an artist but as something almost mythological.
Instead of recreating that image, we asked what it could become.
The team’s creative direction imagined Asake as both man and monument, blending the stillness of classical sculpture with the confidence of contemporary fashion. The brief, conceptualised by our design team led by Dunsin Bankole, called for a gallery-quality illustration with soft museum lighting, sculptural textures, warm neutral tones and subtle gold accents, creating something that could exist as fine art while remaining unmistakably tied to the album.
Once the concept was clear, the next decision was who should bring it to life.
For WeTalkSound, working with Shalom wasn’t simply about finding an illustrator with the right aesthetic. It was also about making space for emerging creatives whose work deserves larger platforms.
“As a creative company, part of our responsibility is creating opportunities for young artists to make work that people can experience in the real world,” says Dunsin. “It would have been easy to take a shortcut and generate something quickly, but that’s never been the point. The value is in collaborating with real artists, especially the ones who are young and talented, giving them room to interpret an idea and creating something with intention.”
Shalom’s work, known for its high quality and distinctive digital painting style, felt like a natural fit.
“I’m an artist with my own style, and whatever I draw already reflects that style,” she says. “The visual identity of the album gave me a foundation, but the moment I put my hand to it, it became mine. I had to lean into the sculptural, marble-like texture of the bust from the album cover and filter it through my own lens.”
For many artists, the hardest part of commissioned work is interpreting an open-ended brief. This wasn’t one of those projects.
“The brief was very detailed; I think that was the best part of the whole process,” Shalom says. “When a brief is that clear, it removes the guesswork. After reading it, I knew exactly what to do.”
Having already been listening to M$NEY since its release, she didn’t need to immerse herself in the album again before beginning. “I’d already had a few songs on repeat, so the vibe of the album was already in my head.”
From rough sketch to finished render, the illustration came together in just 24 hours. The compressed timeline meant making decisions quickly, refining ideas as they emerged rather than lingering over them. “It was similar to my usual process,” she says. “The difference was that I had to be more decisive and skip some of my usual overthinking.”
The other side of that rested on Dunsin’s shoulders. As Shalom moved fast, he was matching her pace, reviewing renders in real time and approving or redirecting components.
One of those exchanges became one of the most striking elements of the finished piece: the gold sheen. Over multiple iterations, Dunsin and Shalom refined the colouring together until it hit just right.
Live events are often remembered through photos and videos. Physical keepsakes are usually an afterthought. This illustration flipped that idea.
Produced exclusively for attendees of Insert Nights: M$NEY Edition, the print became another way of experiencing both the album and the event, not solely aural but through an object that could continue living long after the event itself.
However, Shalom wasn’t quite thinking about longevity while she worked.
“My goal isn’t necessarily to make it immortal,” she says. “I just want to make it as beautiful and captivating as possible. If the work is strong enough, it outlives the night on its own.” That’s exactly what made the project compelling.
At a time when AI-generated imagery can produce endless variations of almost anything, commissioning an original illustration felt like a deliberate choice. Shalom isn’t particularly worried about the comparison.
“I think people can always tell when art is soulless,” she says. “You can generate a painting in less than a minute, but it has no life behind it. Even with less experienced artists, you can see the intention in every stroke. Every mark and every colour choice carries meaning. That’s what separates art made by human hands from anything generated by a machine.”
For WeTalkSound, that’s exactly the point.
Music has always been bigger than music. It’s fashion, photography, illustration, design and the communities that bring those disciplines together. If M$NEY is an album about legacy, then it felt only right to celebrate it by commissioning work that carries the imprint of a real artist’s hand.
Sometimes the best souvenir from a night isn’t a wristband or a tote bag.
Sometimes it’s a piece of art.
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