PRODUCER WATCHLIST 2024
WRITTEN BY NICHOLAS O’CONNOR
JANUARY 1ST 2024
Yinka
Yinka (21), a producer of Nigerian/Dutch descent residing in the Netherlands has loved music and the culture surrounding it since he was young, using it as a tool to grasp his emotions and cope with any stress from the outside world.
As a young child, Yinka would be immersed in an environment of Afrobeats regularly being played in his car with the windows rolled down, somewhat a nostalgic memory for some, but a pivotal era for Yinka.
Growing up, Yinka played multiple instruments, but unfortunately didn’t foresee a future with any of them, giving up on them before leading to any substantial benefit, this was due to the thought of making music never really crossed his mind, until one day one of his friends taught him the basics of fruity loops, as a joke. This led to Yinka creating a YouTube channel where he would upload his beats and songs whenever he made them. “I loved it,” expressed Yinka when asking him. Fast forward 4 years to present time and Yinka still holds that same, if not more passion for the creation of music.
For 2024 Yinka has a lot of goals he seeks to achieve. One of his biggest goals being to become financially stable enough to be able to quit his job and start focusing on music full time. He also wants to widen his skills and improve the connections he’s got with his network. “This means making more samples, sending out more beats (in more genres) and working more closely with the people that I think have the most potential and motivation to make it.”
Furthermore, Yinka is focused and motivated to feel healthy as this would make him more satisfied with his craft, causing him to watch his habits closely and implement a training routine on a day to day basis.
“I live in the Netherlands. It’s a great place with lots of opportunities, but I’ve always felt like it isn’t the place for me. This was even more apparent over the last year while experiencing a lot of self growth. I didn’t really have a lot of interest in the Dutch music industry and missed the multicultural atmosphere you had in other places like London for example.” One way Yinka counteracted these problems was upscaling his trips to London, during these trips he’d experience what he had missed in the Netherlands, while simultaneously meeting a lot of his music network that he had met online throughout the years. “I also think my music improved a lot because of these trips.”
Throughout the years, Yinka has been faced with a lot of adversity. It is hard to remain focused and avoid any doubts over a long career, after asking how he’s eliminated his doubts over his time producing I asked for any advice for upcoming producers, he stated “Just keep going.” Reflecting on his passion, he tells us “all the doubts I’ve ever had have disappeared over time. Every time I was at my lowest something would happen to motivate me just enough to continue. It took me a while to figure it out but staying consistent really does eliminate doubts and stress. I manifest my dream of making it big and I don’t believe it’s a straight line upwards. I learned that getting to your goals has ups and downs continuously and you’ll never be 100% satisfied. For me remembering and telling myself this really is a cheat code to overcoming and eliminating any doubts.” A mindset I hope is instilled in him for his whole career and especially 2024, a year where I truly believe Yinka will breakthrough.
NUVO
Originally from France, now coming out of Greenwich. From as young as he can remember, Nuvo (22) has had an ear for music, inspired by gospel; he’s connected to music in ways so great he can’t explain.
Talking with him I learnt that he is the first in his entire family to be musically/creatively inclined, always being involved with the sound throughout his life, from playing the djembe in primary school, then going on to play piano, drums and bass in secondary to then shortly before leaving secondary school, teaching himself how to produce.
Nuvo expresses looking through the music, he is a child at heart just wanting to enjoy the things he loves for what they are and wanting the best outcome for other people no matter what they’ve been through. He went on to say, “I’m someone very relatable to most people and my kind nature never fails to motivate and inspire people around me to see the best in themselves.”
This year Nuvo aims to hit the mainstream with his unique sound, and “elevate the game and bring out the best of up and coming, emerging artists and release successful tracks with them.” Delving into his schedule, Nuvo proclaimed his struggles handling his social media last year, he expressed the demand he requires for this year to showcase his talent to the world, despite making a ton of beats every day and constantly collaborating with other producers, it just wasn’t up to par for him, a drive and hunger only a few possess is visible in Nuvo. Additionally, another struggle he faced last year was not realising sooner his potential of being able to create numerous genres such as trap, drill, jersey, R&B and trap soul to a professional industry standard. Before he categorised himself as a ‘trap’ producer, but acknowledges he is capable of a lot more than just creating trap beats.
Nuvo requires a high demand output of work from himself, which as a creative I respect highly myself, he continues to work hard and adapt, even if it is 1% a day, “a step forward is a step forward at improving my skills and becoming the best version of myself that God intended me to be”.
Lastly, I asked Nuvo the main reason for his drive, ability and where he finds the source of motivation enticed in his music, his answer was Jesus Christ. With praying every day and asking him for guidance he has been his anchor in all aspects of his life, simply put; without Jesus Christ, there is no Nuvo and without him there is no peace of mind. He ended with “Thank you to my label 4SP for believing in my sound from the start when no one would even look my way”, now he has eyes on him, what can he accomplish this year? As history stands the test of time, I believe anything he puts his mind to.
HOWJ
The recent graduate with a degree in biochemistry from Leeds university Howj (23), didn’t feel the need to rush into any regular job in that field because music is his true passion.
After careful, taxing and considerate, but great conversations with close friends who helped Howj believe in his musical ability, he decided to take the leap and pursue the riskier path, music. Since finishing university Howj felt the importance of establishing his own sound and developing it to stand out amongst the other producers in the scene, he felt his sound needed to represent his music taste for his fanbase to truly know him on a deeper level. And so, it began, he started learning jazz piano which is the basis for most of the music he produces today, taking courses and consistently practising keys every day to develop his music knowledge.
One of Howj’s aims for this year is financial freedom, in correlation to making music full time for a living. He hopes this reflects positively into his music, allowing himself the creative direction needed to open new opportunities and free time to lock in and focus on what truly matters to him, music.
Additionally, music has helped Howj “define” his purpose, which is something growing up and in recent years he has struggled with, the constant persistence of creating and developing as a producer has almost crafted Howj’s purpose in a way, and you can hear this in his sound, paving a way and touching a new sound for the jazz/drill genre. At the same time taking the business side of music more seriously has helped Howj fully define his role in the world and find his path to follow.
Furthermore, Howj’s doubts in music and goals following the last few years have only been diminished by his closest friends and the work he has put in to build a solid foundation around his sound, discovering new ways of branching out to various artists and breaking his comfort zone. He then goes on to say “Shoutout to the Iyalla brothers”, who pushed Howj out of his comfort zone and instilled belief into his craft. And in hindsight a lot of artists are thankful as well because it gave them the opportunity to work with Howj, who is definitely on the watchlist for the industry coming into the new year.
FIIDE
Born in Whitechapel, moving to Guildford at a young age, Fiide (19) practically raised his stylistic ear for music at a young age, finding great interest in DJing before production was even an option. Struggling with behaviour at school Fiide would find himself suspended from school in year 7, consequently leading to his mum banning him from his XBOX, something he would confide in to escape reality, due to his lack of resources that were available to him before he found himself stricken and constantly finding ways to keep himself occupied, this is where he found his dads computer. His dad, who he would visit on weekends, was always into computing and technology and messed around with different software, including other DAWs like ‘Reason’ and ‘Pro Tools’.
This is where Fiide would confide in FL Studio 11, finding a journey to fill the void and replace DJing as his pathway to music success. Like many others Fiide uploaded his beats regularly to SoundCloud during the era it was most popular as an outlet to free uploads and building a fanbase to express his music across. As his passion for music persistently grew, so did his skillset and fanbase.
Fiide wanted to branch away from his usual genre in which he started with, ‘trap’. Especially this year Fiide aims on being more focused and building connections outside of the UK with artists he wouldn’t usually work with due to their genre preference, but on more of a personal level Fiide is looking into ways to help him develop a healthier lifestyle, balancing music and day to day life.
His main priority in 2024 is to continue to push BigFish Records much heavier and execute the vision he has over these next few years, with the hopes that people “enjoy the music we bring to the table this year”.
On the other hand, life isn’t always as it seems and people genuinely struggle, Fiide describes some of the mishaps and situations that happened over the last year or so and expressed how “creative arts have always been a sort of mental escape for me – whether that be drawing, writing or producing music”. He professed his gratefulness towards his craft as he reflects on last year and is glad he has the ability through music to fill the void many others struggle with and create art with his emotions, something that really put weight on a nerve when I read and reflected on, he ended this passage with, “I honestly don’t know how I would live without music in my life”.
Lastly, Fiide shone light on his confidence by telling us that during his career he has always been more than capable with reflecting on his ability, there then is no reason or space for doubt to breathe, whether that be in music production or scouting talent from artists, he feels as though he has a good ear and eye when it comes to music. But Fiide, need not dwell in the fact that he has felt unmotivated at times over his career and down about certain things on a human level, whether that’s views or sales lacking more than usual, or not getting as many placements as another point in time, but just reminds himself that he would have “killed to be in this position” he’s in now, and reflecting on the journey so far always puts into perspective a pivotal maintenance to stay motivated and stay out of the ‘stuck’ mentality. Fiide has already endured so much and maintained a commendable position already in his early career, time will tell where we see him over this next year, and I’m excited to witness the duration of the journey.
JAYDO
Josiah, AKA JayDo (19) from the UK has been an avid music lover from before he can remember, starting guitar lessons from when he was 8, constantly excelling with the instrument playing for his church worship team for a short amount of time gaining more experience and infusing consistency into his passion for music.
JayDo grew around a music environment, with his older brother producing he found it easy to catch on and in a short, but successive amount of time, landing sessions with some big names in the industry like: ‘Tom Did It’, ‘Chip’ and ‘Nafe Smallz’, who till this day holds one of the best ‘Fire in The Booths’ and all who are well respected rappers in their niche. Additionally, JayDo hopes to come out of his comfort zone on a regular basis, eliminating all fear to reach his full potential as a producer and land big placements for further growth, development and networking accessibility. After working with various names in the industry a goal of this year is to land a placement and release a track with Manchester based ‘Aitch’, one of the biggest in the UK space, which would be a huge opportunity for any producer. Not only is he focused on working alongside artists, but he also wants to branch out and work with producers such as: ‘Eight8’, ‘Harry Beech’ and ‘X10’ to really master his craft and configure his sound.
Furthermore, he finds solace in music and much like a lot of people, JayDo uses music to escape reality and to deviate from the commotions of the outside world. He likes the “free rein” on whatever producers/creatives make and uses his own personal feelings at the time to help drift him towards the specific sounds based on his mood to translate or evoke specific emotions from the listener. For example, he can drift into RnB, jazz drill or even trap based on the emotions he feels specific to that time.
To conclude, JayDo is sworn in confidence due to his pure, genuine passion for making music, he expressed “it’s hard to have doubts if you are doing what you love”, but understands obstacles may intertwine at times during his career, but embraces ways to grow and develop as a producer through staying consistent and continuing to expand out of his comfort zone, which if he implements into his music, he is sure to be a highly respected producer in the scene.
JAYEM
Originally from Kent (22) Jayem has been producing since 2015, initially influenced heavily from the SoundCloud rap era, but now with a stylistic adaptation of jazz rap infused with hyper pop, making a variation of sounds, from pop to rap, to hyper pop, he doesn’t put a limit on his versatility and takes advantage of his freedom when it comes to producing.
This year a focus for Jayem is to collaborate with artists he’s previously worked with and build a continuous bond with, but also seeks to branch out and plant seeds with new artists such as Amvnii. He wants to break out of his comfort zone and help new artists grow their sound, which I personally find inspiring as it builds a hunger and radiates onto other artists and subconsciously forces them to step up their game.
He opened up about his struggles with anxiety over the last few years, but professed how music has helped him shine light and get him out of a dark place. He now enjoys working with new artists and establishing these new creative bonds, using his time and craft wisely, rather than just hoarding beats that wouldn’t see the light they deserve.
The main thing keeping Jayem going is the belief in himself and his craft which really reflects in his music. I think in time Jayem will be a big factor in the UK rap space and with some of his plans for this year we’ve put him on notice.
