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When Mo’Hits Records collapsed in March 2012, Don Jazzy almost walked away from the music industry.
In his recent Rolling Stone Africa (October issue) cover interview, the 42-year-old producer and music mogul seriously considered leaving Nigeria after breaking up the iconic label he co-founded with D’Banj.
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“Honestly, not much shakes me. I’m cut from a different cloth,” he said. “When something goes wrong, I ask, ‘Can we fix it?’ If yes, we fix it. If not, we move on. When Mo’Hits ended, I thought that was it. I almost packed up to move abroad.”
He recalled that it took a circle of loyal friends to convince him to stay and start over, a decision that gave birth to Mavin Records, now one of Africa’s most successful music powerhouses.
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“Friends encouraged me to stay and start again, and Mavin Records was born,” he said. “Since then, I’ve learned not to let anything break me. Even losing my mother two years ago was deeply painful, but life has to move on. You fix what you can and keep going.”
That resilience has paid off. Over a decade later, Mavin has evolved into a global label home to Grammy-nominated stars Rema and Ayra Starr, whose success marks a new chapter for Afrobeats worldwide.
And Don Jazzy’s legacy stretches even further. During the same Rolling Stone feature, he named his Top 5 Greatest Afrobeats Albums of All Time, a list that reflected both his influence and deep respect for the genre’s pioneers:
“Number one, Mushin 2 Mo’Hits — produced by me. Then Grass 2 Grace by 2Baba, Superstar by Wizkid, The Entertainer by D’Banj, and Aṣa’s self-titled debut album.”
Afrobeats legacy
Unapologetic and confident, it was the list only someone who helped shape Afrobeats from the ground up could make. From crafting D’Banj’s Tongolo and Suddenly to defining hits like Oliver Twist, Eminado, and Dorobucci, Don Jazzy’s production genius has been a constant pulse in the genre’s evolution.
Yet even after decades of dominance, he remains pragmatic about the future.
“Some people think Afrobeats is slowing down,” he told Rolling Stone. “But there’s so much great African music the world hasn’t even discovered yet. Attention spans are shorter now, but that’s okay — new artists will keep emerging and pushing Afrobeats to the next level.”
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That commitment to nurturing new talent was also discussed in his appearance on The Echo Room podcast, where he revealed how expensive it is now to break an artist at Mavin.
“It costs between $100,000 and $300,000 — that’s about N150 million to N500 million to activate a new artiste under Mavin,” he said.
The figure underscores the scale of Afrobeats today a far cry from the scrappy, small-studio beginnings of Mo’Hits.
Still, for Don Jazzy, it’s never just about the money or the music; it’s about the people behind the sound.
“Beyond the music, I focus on the vessel the person,” he explained. “I look at their personality, their hunger, their vision. You can’t always predict who will blow, but sometimes you can feel when someone truly wants it.”
From Mo’Hits’ collapse to Mavin’s global rise, Don Jazzy’s story remains one of resilience, reinvention, and quiet mastery proof that even when it looked like the end, he was only beginning.
