Amidst the growing admiration for Afro-beats in the world with artists like Burna Boy’s nomination for the 2020 Grammy Awards and as well as the Brit Awards in the same year, there’s no disputing the facts that Afro-beats has become one of the major genres in the mainstream music scene. With Wizkid and Davido flying the Afro-beats flag all over the world, conquering new music markets and winning accolades along the way, the global music market is gearing up to export Afro-beats as they did with the crude oil and gold from Africa. The Beyoncé’s ‘The Lion King’ album involving the best of Afro-beats artists give credence to my assertions. That said, more often than not when we talk about Afro-beats, most times, we only zero in on the artists leaving out the music producers that contributed to 90% of the success. Some Nigerian music producers should stake a claim like the artists are doing. But the question now is, who are the music producers of the most well-known Afro-beats songs? Between Don Jazzy, Sarz or Legendury Beatz, who produced the most popular Afro-beats song?

As of today, they are several young music producers that have contributed their quota of hit records that are buzzing in the world music market but none of them can lay claim as the producer of the most popular Afro-beats songs like those produced by Don Jazzy, Sarz, and Legendury Beatz – within the three music producers, they created some of the most notable songs that attracted the attention of the world. Although they are other producers of that ilk in recent times, nevertheless, the listed three produced magic.

Don Jazzy

When talking about some of the best Afro-beats songs today, it will be a huge mistake not to mention the name Don Jazzy and the song he produced. When he and D’banj started their quest in the Nigerian music industry in 2004, never did they know those great songs produced for D’banj at Mo’Hits Record will land them a record deal in 2011 on rappers Kanye West’s Good Music. The result was the release of D’banj ‘Oliver Twist’- one of the famous Afro-beats hit single. According to the report, the song debuted at number nine on the UK Singles Chart. Kanye Fell in love with the sound of Afro-beats, he did not hesitate to begin to affiliate with it.

Sarz

With the growing love for Afro-beats and the failures that follow because the western world does not know how to produce it without watering down the content of the sound, that was when the magic of Sarz the producer kicked in. Acclaimed for Wizkid ‘Sweet Love’ and ‘Closer’ featuring Drake.

He did co-production on Drake’s ‘One Dance’, which features guest vocals from Wizkid released April 5th, 2016. The song became Drake’s biggest single to date reaching number-one single in fifteen countries. It topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for 10 non-consecutive weeks and became the joint-second longest consecutive number one in the UK Singles Chart.

Wizkid (featured artist) became the first Nigerian artist to (Chart on and) top the USBillboard Hot 100. Sarz also produced ‘Energy (Stay Far Away)’ – Skepta & Wizkid. The song spent 15 weeks on the UK Singles Chart. Finally, Sarz was also a co-composer on one of the tracks on Beyoncé’s The Lion King Album.

Legendury Beatz

In 2014, the duo music producer Legendury Beatz recorded one of the most influential Afro-beats records when they produced Wizkid’s ‘Ojuelegba’ from his self-titled second album ‘Ayo’. The remix of that song had Drake and Skepta on it. The song charted as the number one song on Capital Xtra’s Afrobeats chart. The listed songs are among some of the most pivotal/crucial Afro-beats tunes that got the world listening to the genre. The listed three Top music producers all recorded some of the best Afro-beats hit records.

Words by

Sesan Adeniji