Why up and coming musicians must choose producers carefully – Lil Skib

Fast-rising Afrobeats singer Bassey Pericles, known as Lil Skib (Little Skilled Boy), says upcoming musicians must choose music producers carefully.

In an Interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Lil Skib, who is a signee of Maze Media, discussed his inspiration and challenges as an up-and-coming musician.

He said, “As an up and coming musician it’s important to choose your music producer carefully because it can make or mar your career. So, look beyond the name and focus more on originality.

‘’I prefer quality to quantity; I can tell a production with a wack producer or an excellent production with the right sound engineer; music has a margin rule in production, so if the right producer fits in the job, then there’s magic in that soundtrack.” .

The Akwa Ibom native who occasionally dabbles in “Hip Hop and ‘RnB’” genres also explained why sound is essential to up and coming musicians.

He said, “Waxing an excellent record depends on the production of the beats from rhythms, bass & tempo. At the final stage, the mixing, mastering & sound engineering of each bar holding the lyrics, hook or bridge of any music determines the outcome of the song.”

Harping on the need for quality production, he highlighted the disparity between a haphazard music production and a good one.

Lil Skib started his music career in 2015, when he made music by freestyling, playing local drums, doing song covers, and engaging in street raps and neighbourhood performances.

In 2019, he dropped a single titled “street” from a freebie instrumental, mixed and mastered by Bigzy Lion and was nominated for BEST STREET SINGLE for Top Naija Music Awards, “Street” was a street hit single from its Hit & Clap Hip-Hop vibes.

In 2022, he released “Mo Tide’, produced by Diamond V & “Victory SogPerfect.

Challenges, Journey so far

On the challenges he has faced since he started his career, he walked memory lane, saying it started with finding a music production studio to record a song.

He recalled, “When I started making music, I needed to access a studio to produce the record; it was a tough time in the area and locating a studio was very few.

“And when I found one, it became so annoying that you must be of age to walk in boldly and ask for a session to do your thing since it was for adults. You needed to go to the studio with a superior or guidance or parents if at all to monitor you as the studio environment wasn’t for kids, and sometimes they were also expensive.”

After failing to find a suitable recording studio as a young kid, he resorted to improvising with his phone as he lacked personal equipment to produce quality sounds.

“So all I did was to create a record from the radio port or phone to phone playing and recording on the beat- making it look perfect for submission, then would take it to events, parties & clubs, they would ask what file did I send as it turns out to be a Wav. File even if I edited it to MP3.”

He explained that he also faced rejections when looking for where to perform.

Finally, he stated that all these challenges prompted his move to the more creative parts of Lagos.

“I had to move from the downtown part of Ojo, Badagry expressway to come to the mainland and see how the music business grows from start to finish, and then I discovered a lot of recording studios to produce my music in 2015.” He said.