13 hours ago
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The first time I met Nwaka Tobiloba James in 2022, he was a shy young kid fresh off the gospel scene, trying to find his feet as a young producer in the Nigerian music scene. The last time I saw NYRP was at Chocolate City’s studio, in the middle of music sessions with Candybleakz, putting finishing touches to songs that’d be on her forthcoming EP.
I study the young man. He’s no longer the kid I used to know. The young boy always carrying a piano and running to record and produce in Surulere. There’s something different about him now. There’s the presence of assurance. There’s the power that comes from knowing you’re on track, and you’re closer to your dreams than you think.
He started from church, like almost everyone else. The most common route our superstars ply, from drumming to the gospel of religion to learning how to play the piano, he developed the knowledge of music. He says he didn’t want to be an instrumentalist forever, because he believed it had limitations, so he searched for more, and he found production.
NYRP started making beats on his phone, and soon graduated to a laptop. He cites Jon Bellion as one of his core inspirations and says the singer motivated him to chase the music business.
Soon enough, he’d start finding his way in the journey. He enrolled for The Sarz Academy, a music production school started by legendary Afrobeats producer Sarz for upcoming talents, designed to produce and tutor the next guardians of the sound of the genre. He tells me that Dunnie was his tutor at the time. He was in class with other now popular producers like Godomarr, Semzi, P Prime, Gbots and some others. “TSA provided me with validation. People took me more seriously when they saw the Sarz Academy sticker on my laptop. It was like verification for me”, he says.
After the academy, he would get platformed on Ejoya’s class of 22 album. Ejoya puts out an album every year to spotlight the best young talents of that year and highlight them for the coming year. He was platformed on the intro of the project, on a track titled NGOMSO. Being the only artist featured on the intro, and being a producer, it drew a lot of attention to NYRP. Everyone wondered who the new kid on the block was.
“I was in contact with Tolu Daniels and they were done with the album. They were looking for an intro to the project and my manager played the song for tolu and he was sold. Everything happened really fast and I found myself on the project, on the first song. It was amazing. It made people look in my direction”.
He’s always been very attentive to and inspired by street pop. When I first met him, he told me one of the artists he wanted to work with so bad was Mohbad. He loved Mohbad. Mohbad actually made him start working with his manager. He reached out to Kevin Asaju, and told him he has beats he’d like Mohbad to jump on but he doesn’t have the access to him and Kevin took it up from there and made it work. After that, they kept it going, and have done so ever since.
During this part of the interview, he gets emotional. On one part, he’s grateful he got to record with Mohbad before the superstar passed away last year, but he’s sad he’d never get to do so again, and also because he doesn’t know if the songs will ever see the light of day. He described Mohbad as one of one, and vowed to do everything in his power to make sure the songs come out when the entire saga has settled to dust.
We talk about more street pop. One of Tobi’s highlights in his career was producing Wale for CandyBleakz and the remix with Simi. He likened working with Candy to being in family meetings. He says it’s just pure understanding even without speaking. He says she’s up there in his list of favorite artists to work with, along with YKB and Pheelz.
His story with Pheelz is a very funny one, and we laugh as he shared it with me. He met Pheelz for the first time in 2018, at a music business conference in Ikeja. In his words, immediately he saw Pheelz drive into the place with his Benz, and heard him speak on production and what it’s done for him, he put in a call and resigned from his 9-5. He says that’s where he made up his mind that he was going to be a full time producer. Immediately after resigning, he started thinking of a name for his brand, to stand out.
NYRP, the name the world now calls Tobi are initials for Not Your Regular Producer. “Whenever I think of myself, I think I’m not your regular producer, so I decided to call myself that. When I met Sarz at TSA and he asked me what my name was, I told him my name was NYRP. He asked for the meaning and I told him, and he was like damn, that’s sick. That’s where I knew I was keeping the name. My Idol co-signed it, so it was valid”.
He would eventually go on to share the story with Pheelz, when they worked together on the remix of YKB’s High and Sober. “Sitting in the same room with someone that used to inspire me so much, and bouncing ideas off each other was something special to me, I didn’t take it for granted at all”.
He has a lot of admiration for the underground scene. When asked for artists he’s intrigued by currently and is on the lookout for their development and success, he mentions Jamz, Xplode, EasyScope, Amakarh, Melody and PjStarr. He wants to work with Buju. He wants to work with a lot of people, but he hates the music business. He hates the side of music that exists outside the studio and the stage. The contracts, the eye service, the politics, all of it.
At the end of our conversation, I ask him how he feels. He’s elated. He’s fresh off a three way collaboration between LAX, Taves and Ayo Maff. The song is currently buzzing on charts and NYRP is on top of his game. He says there’s more records coming out. A listers, B listers, all listers. He refuses to name drop but he promises more, and I am excited to know what the future holds for this young superstar.
English (US) ·