Tip-toeing across Africa’s dance floors is a new pulse of the streets. Leaping from emotive mixtures of soothing synths, percussions and a broad spectrum of genres, Afrobeats’ present facelift has a touch of intimacy. While the mind-numbing log drums of Amapiano sizzle through the continent’s most bustling music scene, moody RnB, Jazz, and Soul tempos have found their way to add colour to the contemporary pop music shaping the scene.
From Omah Lay’s ‘Reason’, and ‘Can’t Relate’, to Barry Jhay’s ‘O ga ra’, Tuzi, born Michael Opara, keeps upping the ante with his beatmaking magic helping to spotlight more intimate and unorthodox Afrobeats expressions on a global radar. His debut release, ‘Shanor’, featuring 1da Banton and Asake cements his ambitions to remain a household melody across Afrobeats expanding landscape.
Catching up with Guardian, the iconic 25-year-old shares his journey racing to the top, creative muses, honing his craft, escaping complacency, trusting his gut, as well as eyeing broader dreams for his future, and many more.
How do you feel about where you are in your music journey?
I feel happy. I feel privileged. I’m not sure I’m fulfilled yet, because you know human wants are never satiable. I’m grateful to God for the present place where I’m at; you know, among the many people I started this career with back in the day, I’m one of the few who has made it this far. I’m very grateful to God.
What did you want to achieve with music?
Looking back on everything I have always wished for, I have gotten many of those things. At first, I wanted to learn. I wanted to be really great at the craft. Even before the money, I wanted to have a hit song. Then from having a hit song, I wanted to start making more money. So, it has been in stages and I can tell you that I have been able to meet my expectations, that is, to blow and to be one of those names they mention when it comes to those who are exporting Afrobeats out of its home region.
Are you self-taught?
I didn’t really go to a music production school but I don’t think anybody learns completely by themselves. They must have gotten the knowledge from somewhere or from someone. Although I discovered most of these things myself, I will give credit to a lot of people who gave me access to information.
So, how did you get into music production fully?
I discovered music production at a very early stage. My dad consumed the traditional Igbo highlife music, while my mom listened to a lot more Christian gospel music. On the other hand, my uncles were heavy on Sean Paul and my aunties listened to Michael Jackson. Those things influenced me and I fell in love with music. The whole thing started in my head and I can remember one day I told my uncle that I would like to be one of the guys playing the drums behind the music they listened to. They told me that, unlike what I knew, most of the time the music was not being played by a band; it was always one person sitting down to produce the music, and they are called producers. I said an excited ‘hmmm,’ and I can remember asking him of producers he knew. He told me about Don Jazzy and I was like, ‘I would like to be like Don Jazzy, someday.’ And from there I had that in mind. In primary school, I joined the music club. The school was really helpful, because the equipment was available for me to practice with.
I attended St Agnes nursery and primary school, in Ikorodu, and it helped shape my music; because they had all the equipment and a good music teacher. I left that school and I entered a public secondary school, where I lost touch of those things but I was still attending summer coaching at the secondary school of my former primary school I attended. So, I discovered that some of my old classmates had started making music and singing and I was interested again. I think that was in SS1. I asked them about where they were producing their songs and it led me to a few producers who introduced me to some softwares. Luckily, my dad had a laptop, and I installed those softwares and began learning how to produce music. It didn’t get easy, but I started getting information from people and from there it has been clutch.
What was the first song you produced that got you convinced you could build an entire career out of music production?
I wasn’t completely convinced till I got to some point in this journey. I won’t tell you I was fully confident that I would blow up. But one thing I was doing for sure is putting in the work; there was no pressure at the time I was producing. I was in the street. And from Ikorodu, I moved to live in Mushin, then I began working in a studio at Yaba. We were just doing it for fun; there was no pressure at all. I can tell you for a fact when I decided to stick with this was when I had a hit song and I started seeing money that I hadn’t touched before. My first hit song ‘Sensima’ by Skibii brought many opportunities. I had full confidence that I could actually make a living off this if I continued putting in the work and believing in God.
Tell us about three records that are very significant to your career and the stories behind them.
‘Sensima’ with Skibii and Reekado Banks made me who I am today. The song didn’t come to make me popular, but it came to usher me into the industry. It gave me like an ID. When I entered any venue, I was Tuzi who produced ‘Sensima’ for Skibii. I didn’t make the song with Skibii in the studio though; I will give credit to Swaps for that life changing move. He made that introduction. It was just on a random afternoon when I was preparing for a session. Myself and Asake were signed to a label in 2018. We actually came from Ikorodu to be signed somewhere in the Lekki area of Lagos. Swaps the mixing engineer lives in one of the estates around that axis and there were a lot of celebrities coming to his house to mix and master their tracks. On that fateful day, I was passing through Swaps apartment and he called me. I didn’t even know he had heard of me. I saw a Prado jeep drive in. I didn’t know it was Skibii coming out, but he just called me to the car. I told Skibii that ‘Baba I dey make beat o,’ and he responded, ‘Ah, you dey make beat? Oya na go bring am make we hear.’ I went back to the studio and brought the laptop. I played up to 12 beats for Skibii before he selected the one for ‘Sensima’. The next thing was phone calls from his team that they wanted to release the song. That ‘Sensima’ beat was made eight months before I met Skibii and it was originally for Asake.
Does Asake know the beat was originally for Asake?
Yeah he knows. The name of the beat was originally ‘Asake free madness’.
Wow.
Swaps also introduced me to Reekado Banks. Similarly, he randomly called me to the studio where I met Reekado Banks and played him the beat for ‘Rora’. It took us four to five months to get that record ready. After that another major record was ‘Can’t Relate’ by Omah lay. It brought a lot of opportunities and attention. It kept me going. I think those were the three major songs till this year’s breakthrough with another Omah lay record called ‘Reason’.
Who are some of the other producers or musicians that have somewhat influenced your perspective on your craft?
My influences start from Don Jazzy. I still go back to his old catalog to tap a few bounces from him. For me, I listen to music without attaching myself to the artiste and the creators of the music. I go to a random playlist to listen to music a lot. Other producers in Nigeria that had a major influence on me are Chopstix, E-Kelly, and my very colleague Ozedikus. Ozedikus’ influence is actually a one-on-one influence because he is always there to answer whatever question I have to ask. I think at one point I also had a one-on-one with Chopstix. I hope to meet Don Jazzy someday too. For foreign influences, I think I can mention Timberland, because of his bounce and his arrangements. However, for foreign music, I listen to it randomly without being attached.
What do you want people to experience from Tuzi when they consume your music?
I have never seen music as a one-man thing. Currently, I’m trying to build a production team, like a live band where you have different instrumentalists, but we are only going to produce music together. I’m coming along with everyone who created the music, you understand? What I want people to experience when they listen to my music is to feel like you are watching a movie. I want my production and my music to be an experience.For example, with Omah Lay’s ‘Reason’, if you listen to the instrumentation you will hear all sorts of elements, and it’s always very interesting. I always like my productions to be an experience. I always want to move along with the artiste; so while the artiste is killing it with the vocals, I’m also killing it with the instrumental. As a listener too, if you love music and you want to experience music and listen to something different each time, you can listen to my productions. This is how I want my listeners to feel, like a movie they want to watch but don’t know what to expect. So, at the end, it has that ‘wow!’ effect on them.
So, finally, what occupies your day and time when you are not typically making music?
In the end of this whole thing, my long term goal is to become a music executive. I also want to have my own recording company. So, if I’m not making beats, I’m also studying and thinking of, and also trying to discover new art. I’m also strolling through Instagram trying to look for that new gig I can develop, studying the tricks and how to bring out an artiste. I’m trying to go into the business part of music. That’s my long term goal and those are the things I work on during my spare time. I also watch movies. I play fortnight like crazy. Basically movies, studying, you know how to break into the industry and also move forward in the industry as an exec in the industry. That’s basically what I do if I’m not producing.
