By Adeayo Adebiyi

When fast-rising producer Daniel Salako, professionally known as SKondtrack, produced “Gifted,” the opening track on Afropop Zinoleesky’s debut album Gen Z, it was an endorsement of his talent and years of consistency.  The album reached the summit of the Apple Music Nigeria album chart, peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard World Albums chart, and debuted at No. 7 on the Spotify Global Top Album Debut chart.

On ‘Gifted’, SKondtrack’s smooth production, featuring paced drums, warm keys and strings, combines to form a minimalist beat that allows Zinoleesky’s emotional outpouring to take centre stage. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the production is the clarity and pacing. The drums set the rhythm, the keys add musicality, and the violins add emotion to the record. It’s the capacity to capture the essence of various collaborators that has helped him to build an extensive catalogue with over 50 million streams since he began professionally making music in 2019.  

As a producer, he prides himself on his versatility, which is evident across his catalogue. Combining his Nigerian musical elements with global influences, he crafts sounds that add indigenous context to Pop, R&B, Dancehall, Hip Hop, and even EDM. When you press play on the playlist of his catalogue on Spotify, you are immersed in a sonic diversity that holds up his understanding of Afrobeats fluidity. On Brown Joel, BoyPee, and Hyce’s ‘Must’, he co-produces a Highlife-tinged record where the strings add flavour to the melodies.

On ‘Tattoos’ with Chop Daily and ‘Let Me Go’ with Anastazie, he produces a tender pop record that shows his global influences. He fuses party-starting log drums with Jazz horns on ‘Anoda Banga’ with Chop Daily, Viralboy, and Uglytwizz.

A common denominator I picked up from scouring his catalogue is the musicality of his production. While percussions are central to the beats, he favours a lavish use of strings, keys, horns and samples that makes for a lively production across genre lines. While passion inspired his decision to begin making music professionally, the desire to hone his skills led him to undergo professional training at the Tenstrings Music Institute. To become a master of his craft, he went a step further to study Music & Sound Production at BIMM London, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in 2024.

He combines this academic musical knowledge with raw talent, and the result is the capacity to adjust to the demands of different collaborators. In his collaborations with Chop Daily, for example, his sound shifts from Afropop to UK Garage influences. When he’s crafting beats with singer Anastazie, he fits African percussions into an urban pop framework to produce easy pop records that carry musical elements that clearly point listeners to his cultural identity.

While his versatility allows him to combine African percussion with R&B riffs or Indian bounce with Trap bass lines, it also sets a high bar that requires mastery of production across genre lines rather than defining a particular sound. 

Growing up in Nigeria shaped SKondtrack’s early life, and even after moving to the UK, he continues to draw from these influences while embracing global genres. With his feet planted in both worlds, his production sometimes appears to linger across both territories without fully leaning into either, like his tame use of log drums on ‘Let Me Go’ with Anastazie.

However, if one thing is clear about SKondtrack, it’s the desire to craft striking tunes that will get him to the biggest stages. His desire for expression has already seen him transcend the studio to the stage with his performance at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire as part of the BIMM Graduate Showcase.

Now nearly a decade into his professional career, the talent and ambition that have helped him grow his catalogue to over 68 songs and 50 million streams can be trusted to open more doors for him.