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Music like almost every other thing has evolved. Last week Friday at work, a senior colleague tried to lighten the mood by playing all of them old nostalgic songs. From Paul Play Dairo’s Angel of my Life to Style Plus’ Olufunmi. It was an endless wave of nostalgia. Amidst all of that, I tried to pay some attention to the production and hm. I mean, then it was totally fine but it would definitely not fly now. Evolution.
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As far back as I can remember (early 2000’s please) producers in this part of the world were not given recognition. Perhaps you could say it wasn’t deserved because what did we really know? It was all about the music. Mandem just wanted to vibe. Plantashun Boiz, The Remedies, P-Square, 2face and the likes, it was indeed a vibe.
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As the years evolved we got to acknowledge producers a lot more. Don Jazzy was one of the first for me and this came about obviously because of his amazing partnership with D’banj. Man was just moving around with his walking stick and wasn’t saying much in songs, so what exactly was he doing? I think that was what caught my interest asides the fact his name was probably mentioned in the songs. Around that time too we had ID Cabasa who did a madness with 9ice, Samklef who worked with Wizkid at the time, the late OJB Jezreel, Sosick, Sarz, Cohbams and K- Solo to mention a few.
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Producers were on the come up in terms of popularity. And the above mentioned guys were at the forefront of music production in Nigeria.
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It’s somewhat ironic that as our music, Afrobeat continued to break barriers and get into the global market, there was a similar growth as regards music producers. The numbers increased, the quality went up a notch. We had Drake and Skepta jump on Legendury beatz’ produced Ojuelegba, Sarz produced Bad Energy, Kiddominant produced the record breaking Fall and Kel-P was the primary producer on Burna Boy’s African Giant album.
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It’s safe to say that producers 100% played a major role in the ‘Afro beat to the world’ wave everyone is on.
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Today we have an endless list of producers doing the lords work. From the OG’s: Sarz, Don Jazzy, Pheelz, Shizzi, Masterkraft, Legendury beatz, Spax and Leriq to the new faces from Telz to Young John, Ozedikus, Tempoe, Higo, Rexxie, Speroach Beatz, London, Nipkeys and the hottest of them all currently, P. Priime.
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One important thing to note is that these guys are helping each other grow and succeed. Case study is Sarz who with the Sarz Aademy, has produced the likes of Tempoe, Dunnie and P.Priime. His influence in Kel-P’s development too is worthy of note.
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I know with this list I’ve barely scratched the surface. That’s how big the music production industry has become.
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Nothing is certain in life but rest assured that the future of music production in Nigeria is in safe hands. It’s a producer’s world and best believe we’re living the hell out it.
