By Clarence Macebong
The road to success is not paved with gold. It requires a high level of relentless obsession with your life’s task to reach the pinnacle of any preferred field. The music industry is no different. In a game laced with traps, slave contracts, and wolves clad in expensive clothing; you can only trust yourself, your work, and those people carefully handpicked to support your cause. However, it is easier said than done.
Artists, producers, and executives alike go through phases in their careers where they have to start at the bottom and work their way to the top. Some start well and then fall off, while others want to skip the process of creating solid foundations on which their work can stand and speak for itself. But you can’t beat the game without paying your dues. Unfortunately for people in the music industry, there are several others just like you who play smarter, work faster, and build lasting relationships that benefit themselves and others. Driven by a sense of belonging to their roots, they’re cushioned by a community that supports them when no one else would. Through their efforts, their people are remembered and included in this vastly competitive music scene. You can say they do it for their city.
Nigeria’s music scene continues to reinvent itself as artists from different parts of the country make their way to the front of the queue to be counted and recognized. The community in Lagos remains Nigeria’s creative capital, while the Benin City community has borne golden children in Rema and now, Shallipopi. The Abuja scene, most known for its contribution to the alté revolution in the country, is breaking new ground with artists and producers who offer a fresh perspective on the Nigerian sound.
While Tay Iwar and ODUMODUBLVCK revitalise Nigerian R&B and Hip-Hop simultaneously, the focus of this piece — a producer named UCEE — has put in great effort to make Abuja music respected on its own turf and around the country. You might know him as the mind that unearthed the bounce that “Dog Eat Dog” possesses, but as a man and a creative, he is so much more. “If you want to be behind the scenes, you’ll be behind the scenes,” he tells me while sitting across the table a few metres away. After carrying the weight of his sacrifice for others over the last few years, he finally feels free to step into the spotlight that has waited for him for so long.
This would be my second time meeting UCEE, both times I’ve been privileged to witness his creative process. Although he was still producing and recording other artists in the house, he was in holiday mode. He’s largely reclusive but ultimately self-assured, preferring to work when there are minimal distractions. That way, he can set the mood and tap into the feeling of his “Underwater Sound”, as he likes to call it. On a calm Thursday afternoon, he let me into his journey, the growth of the Abuja music scene, and the Story of the Chosen.
This interview is lightly edited for clarity.
CM: Things are about to start popping off for you. What’s it like being UCEE at this point in time?
UCEE: I went to Rehash and someone came to say hello. I’ve never seen him before. He said, “Bro, you look like someone that has suffered for a long time but they’re enjoying themselves now.” I didn’t know how to react to it, but to be honest that’s where I’m at. I’m that guy that has stayed hungry for the longest and I’m celebrating each win. Every win is a major win for me right now.
When you make music with someone who is at the stage of his career as he is, like ODUMODUBLVCK, that’s cool. But there’s also you coming on your own journey and being amongst that. How did you start out as a producer?
I started producing from school in Minna in 2008 for my friend for fun, till I got linked with some guys in Abuja. I tracked someone and we became a movement then subsequently, a label. The owner of the studio was meant to be our Don Jazzy, and we just shared roles. I was functioning as a producer, but my whole career as an artist was battling for people to recognize me as an artist. I was with that label, Alien Prose, for 7 years, from 2011 to 2018. I registered my own label, Remitano Entertainment after I noticed I was the one actually pushing myself. I got Phaemous, Drako, and RapChords, we were 7.
So you’ve been working with Phaemous for a while?
Yeah. DJ Romzy brought Phaemous to the studio while I was at Alien Prose and told me that he felt we could go a long way. I told him I was barely on my own, I couldn’t take responsibility for another person. He told me to keep my heart open. I left that label and Phaemous said he was with me. Then I started working with almost everyone in Abuja, and EESKAY was my plug into the scene.
How did you meet EESKAY?
I used to know EESKAY when he’d perform in Abuja. There was this hype around the fact that I was a label artist but there wasn’t any background work going on, most of the work was me as a producer. I had no fans, no numbers, just hype. But EESKAY had this voltage on stage. He watched me go on, then it was their turn. In 2018, he came to the studio and I told him I’d like us to work. We did “Belarus” then “Cold Murder” and that’s when he decided to give me a new producer tag [like you hear on “Dog Eat Dog”].
So at this time, you hadn’t even decided to move to Lagos
Even when I moved to Lagos, I didn’t think about moving to Lagos. I was just trying to show my face in the industry. Like EESKAY said, “Wherever there’s a picture, show your face.” Put yourself out there.
And that’s good because a lot of producers are embracing the culture of coming out and showing themselves. Metro Boomin and Sarz make their own projects even though they might not lay their vocals.
If you’re behind the scenes, you will be behind the scenes. You won’t be forgotten but you won’t be remembered. The first day you heard Don Jazzy, you saw his face. And you’ll never forget his face. The popstar artist I’ve been trying to be behind the mic is what I’m trying to be now. I’m going to be the first popstar producer, the Michael Jackson of producers.
When EESKAY gave you that tag, what happened next?
I started reconnecting with my network and old clientele. With my old label, there was a tie holding me with some of my clients. They couldn’t reach me after I left, some were misdirected. I was trying to work with radio stations again and do favours for Abuja while trying to secure gigs as an artist. I was doing that till the end of 2019 when we did a campaign called “NO PAY, NO SHOW”. A lot of us were blacklisted in Abuja. I got depressed in December 2019, I quit music and gave up. In 2020 I came up with a strategy. We had a back and forth with major industry heads and we spoke about how important it is to play Abuja artists on Abuja radio. They mentioned numbers and quality of music as factors, and we promised to make the music better. If you write in your studio that I’m not supposed to pay for airplay, then let us know. So, I started a discount producing full records for N30,000.
That’s what they call doing it for your city.
From every 30k I made, I paid 10k for the setup I was using. What was most important to me was flooding the airways with quality music and my tag. I started producing for every important artist in Abuja, I’d make sure I’d produce your best record at the time. We started challenging the radio stations, and a big shout-out to Soundcity and Max FM, who saw the vision. The condition for the promo I did was for the artists to actually put the songs out, no hard drive music. If you don’t put it out, I’m taking back my beat, fuck your 30k. To get the song on the radio, all you had to do was mail the stations and state that you were an Abuja artist.
I guess the radio stations understood that they had to key into that.
Yeah, we had physical conversations, looking at each other eye-to-eye. So except they wanted to cap, we had to talk about what we wanted to do and the roles we all wanted to play. Let’s do this for Abuja. I told the people who invited me to Lagos before now that I would move when I became a household name in Abuja.
At what point did you know you were a household name?
Towards the end of 2020.
And you moved to Lagos in 2021 so that makes sense.
At some point, I couldn’t come out of that 30k package. My sacrifice was about to swallow me, I had to know when to stop. Before I moved to Lagos I started training a lot of people how to record and mix themselves. Most of the studios you’d go to in Abuja would have “UCEE PRESETS 2.0”. I built that preset for 6 years and then I started sharing it out. It worked for me for a long time.
That’s a crazy sacrifice.
It made sense to share it with people who had other artists under their umbrella, people with a sense of responsibility. EESKAY had other artists under his umbrella so I shared it with him, Odumodu as well. I told them “I’m going to Lagos o, nobody should call me.” If you’re calling me, ask me how I am or send me money.
You had done it for everyone else and it was time to do it for yourself. At what point did you know music was going to be lucrative for you?
I came to Lagos on the 13th of March, 2021. It was on a Wednesday. The next Wednesday, I got my first Macbook.
You’ve put a lot of people on. Who would you say has had the most impact on you in your career?
EESKAY, Phaemous, Greatman Takit, ODUMODUBLVCK. Odumodu and I were not close in Abuja. We knew we respected each other. I knew he had a whole community on his back and likewise for me too. Whenever we met, it was like, “I see you, bro. Well done.” We went to Gwagwalada for one of his shows and I came with my people, as we said. When I did mine, he came with his whole community. When his movement started in Lagos and he came, he called me like, “UCEE, I don show o!”
What was your initial forecast when you met Odumodu?
We didn’t know what it would feel like, we just knew there was going to be light. All we had was our stubbornness. All I knew was that I would meet him in front. If I was still in Abuja, I might’ve been struggling to get one credit on EZIOKWU because I wasn’t really producing for him in Abuja.
Sometimes you go to a different place and connect with people you have connected with before.
Immediately we locked in. We both saw ourselves doing the things we said we would do.
What would you say your creative process is like?
Blank. Curious.
What do you mean by “curious”?
I like to know what will come out. I never pre-plan anything. I just need to set myself in a mood. Most of the time, it changes. I’m mostly led by the process. I feel like every one of my productions is one of one, and that’s because I just let it come. I have different sounds but one thing that connects it all is the feeling.
That’s right because Reeplay’s “Rice and Beans” is not the same thing as ODUMODUBLVCK’s “Dog Eat Dog.”
All the songs I produced on the project are different but you still feel UCEE.
What is the feeling of UCEE?
I call it the ‘Underwater Sound’. It’s the mood. I like people to experience the music I produce, not just listen. Until you can feel the music, the song is not done.
Producers are now understanding their value as creators. When you started Remitano, what was your point of view on protecting and monetizing yourself as a producer?
At every point, I knew there was more to understand in the technicalities of the business as a producer but I didn’t have the information. I didn’t know the nitty-gritty of split-sheets and publishing. I was using DistroKid to distribute my music. I learned the most from the bad deals. All the cuts I’ve gotten in the industry were my lessons. My patience and contentment are my superpowers.
What do you mean by contentment?
I’ve mastered the art of having nothing.
Sometimes that’s what it’s about because most people start off broke. A lot of people who start off broke still end up being rich.
It’s about conditioning. To function the same with or without it. You can’t become a reactor to things.
What is the most important thing for a producer trying to monetize themselves?
Read. I didn’t like to read. But I read to save myself. Even now that I have a lawyer and a manager, once a contract gets in my email, I share it with them. As they’re reading, I’m reading. The idea is to build a formidable force. Oh, and get a lawyer. You can manage yourself.
