Artistes, producers living together influenced Afrobeats’ best records – Don Jazzy

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Don Jazzy

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By Adegboyega Adeleye

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Music executive Michael Ajereh, popularly known as Don Jazzy, has referred to the era when Afrobeats producers and artistes lived together in record labels’ houses, with studios and other facilities, as the one that shaped the industry’s best records.

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Speaking recently on the Crea8torium podcast with Salem King and Adaora Mbelu, Don Jazzy recounted how a random incident involving D’Prince and their manager, Sunday Are, at a house where they were living together in Mo’Hits mansion inspired D’Banj’s ‘Olorun Maje.’

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He said, “I have a theory that says that most of the great music that we made in Afrobeats was when all of us were living together. For instance, D’Banj’s ‘Olorun Maje,’ the idea was from D’Prince and Sunday Are, who was our manager then.”

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Don Jazzy further explained how the constant proximity fostered a natural creative chemistry, which helped their daily interactions become massive hit records. He cited D’Banj’s ‘Olorun Maje’ and Dr Sid’s ‘You Bad, You Want It’ as examples of tracks that emerged from casual studio interactions during the Mo’Hits era.

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“Sunday Are was complaining that D’Prince didn’t want to go to radio interviews. He came to report to me but I didn’t even listen; I was working in the studio. So, I told him to go and report to D’Banj because he is like a military man. So, D’Banj started shouting at D’Prince, scolding him for not going for the interview. D’Prince became angry, then he came back into the studio where I was with Sunday Are, making music and pretended like he was dusting some equipment and then began to sing, ‘Some people they want make I die, some people they want make I win, some people they want make I cry, Olorun Maje oooo.’

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“The lyrics just fell precisely to the beat I was making at that time. I told him to pause that I like it. That was how the song was born. Also, the song ‘You bad, you want it’ was from Dr Sid, who randomly walked into the studio and started rhyming to a beat I was making,” he recalled.

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The 43-year-old, however, said he has remained consistent with his approach to music production, stressing that he still goes into the studio with the intention of creating a beat for a particular artiste. He noted that music creation today is different from the era when he and his contemporaries dominated, as the creative process has become more fragmented over the years, with fewer artistes working under the same roof.

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Don Jazzy also advised the younger generation of creatives to collaborate more often to build stronger cohesion in their craft.

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