Afrobeats is the sound of the globe today. It didn’t just happen and it certainly wasn’t luck either. It was crafted, layer by layer, by producers who spent countless nights behind mixing desks, chasing a sound the world wasn’t ready for.
Today, the world sings our songs. From Lagos to London, from the O2 to Madison Square Garden, Afrobeats has become a global language.
The names we chant, Wizkid, Davido, Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage, are deservedly royalty. They deserve their flowers. But behind those names are the sound sculptors, the producers who carried Nigerian music into the future without ever stepping into the spotlight.
For every Don Jazzy or Sarz who achieved superstar status, there is a sonic genius, whose foundational contributions are either forgotten or tragically miscredited.
This is not a list of producers who are merely “underrated.”
In this article, we shed light on the unsung heroes who defined entire eras, created signature sounds, and launched the careers of global superstars, yet whose flowers have been withheld by a public obsessed with the vocalist alone. It’s time to finally give credit where it is due.
1. LeriQ
LeriQ is arguably the producer who most significantly contributed to the genre-bending success of modern Afrobeats. Born Eric Isaac Utere, LeriQ is arguably the godfather of Afro-fusion.
His contribution to the genre is so profound that it’s almost criminal he remains a cult figure. LeriQ was the undisputed architect of early Burna Boy’s career, crafting the entire sonic template for the groundbreaking L.I.F.E album in 2013.
LeriQ took reggae, dancehall, and African percussion, and mixed them into something entirely new. What we now call Afro-Fusion started there.
Hits such as ‘Like To Party’ and ‘Run My Race’ were not just popular, they were a distinct genre shift.
While Burna Boy rightly ascended to global icon status, LeriQ’s genius remains the great, unsung secret behind his world-conquering sound. And every time Burna leans into that dark, defiant rhythm, you’re still hearing LeriQ’s influence. LeriQ’s masterful touch, marked by his iconic yet subtle tag, “It’s LeriQ call the Paramedic!”, laid the foundational blueprint for Burna’s success.
LeriQ was a producer on Burna Boy’s album Twice as Tall (2020), which won the Grammy Award for Best Global Music Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony.
2. E Kelly
You might not always know his name, but you’ve definitely moved to his beats.
His beats formed the smooth, infectious backbone of West African airwaves for years.
Emmanuel Kelechi Nwosu (E Kelly) is the man who unmistakably made the slow tempo feel cool.
E Kelly deserves critical acknowledgment for defining the sound of a key period in Afrobeats history.
As Mr Eazi’s right hand, E Kelly was one of those who helped birth Banku Music – that easygoing, highlife-meets-Afro-pop rhythm.
Records like ‘Leg Over’, ‘Pour Me Water’ and ‘Omo Alhaji’ dominated clubs in Nigeria and beyond, slowing the pace of Afrobeats down and proving that global hits didn’t require super-fast drumming.
E Kelly stripped Afrobeats of noise and left it with pure rhythm, clean drums, warm chords, and space for vocals to breathe.
However, his reserved profile ensured he never received the public celebrity his foundational rhythms warranted.
3. Puffy Tee
Forget the new wave of street pop, Temidayo Babatope Joseph (Puffy Tee) invented its commercial structure in the 2000s and early 2010s.
Before “street” even became a genre tag, Puffy Tee was already running the streets.
He is responsible for some of the biggest, most enduring anthems that successfully married local Yoruba-language storytelling with globally accessible pop production.
His sound powered some of Nigeria’s biggest cultural moments.
When Olu Maintain’s ‘Yahooze’ dropped in 2007, it wasn’t just a song — it was a movement. Puffy Tee was the mastermind behind that continental smash that defined the era of Afropop.
He repeated the trick with Oritse Femi’s career-resurrecting, pan-Nigerian hit, ‘Double Wahala’.
Puffy Tee demonstrated how to use simple, infectious keyboard melodies and heavy street percussion to create multi-million-stream records that transcended class divides.
It’s safe to say he set the gold standard for party anthems, yet his legacy is consistently overshadowed by the fame of the artists he made stars.
4. Spax
Akano Samuel, better known professionally as ‘Spax’, quietly established the sound of the Alté movement, Nigeria’s counter-cultural music scene.
When everyone was chasing club hits, Spax was chasing texture – in a field that was primarily centred on the commercial Afropop mainstream. He wasn’t after charts. He was after feeling.
Spax is the quiet engineer behind Nigeria’s Alté revolution — the sonic movement that gave young Nigerians a voice outside the mainstream.
His production is known for its incredible warmth, sophisticated jazz chords, soulful basslines, and often lo-fi feel. He shaped the music of Alté pioneers like Odunsi (The Engine), Lady Donli, and Cruel Santino (fka. Santi) — giving them a space to experiment and confidently explore diverse sonic influences.
He made Alté not just a subculture but a soundscape.
Critics love him, artists respect him, but outside that bubble, he’s still almost invisible.
The sophisticated nature of Spax’s work means he is virtually unknown to the wider, mainstream Afrobeats listener.
Yet, without him, the Alté movement might never have sounded as refined as it does. He is a truly unsung hero whose genius provided the creative blueprint for a future generation of Nigerian artists.
5. Chopstix
Every era has a producer whose sound feels like a time capsule. However, as far as early 2010s Afrobeats is concerned, that man was Olagundoye James Malcolm, otherwise known as ‘Chopstix’.
From “Aboki” to “More” to “Gimme Dat”, Chopstix almost single-handedly built Ice Prince’s golden era from the ground up. His beats combined rich melody, African percussion, and hip-hop swagger.
He wasn’t just producing, he was redefining what modern Nigerian rap could sound like. Chopstix made Nigerian hip-hop commercially acceptable to Afropop audiences without watering it down. His sound was textured, and globally ready long before the scene caught up.
In February this year, Chopstix picked up his first Grammy for his work on Chris Brown‘s 2024 album, 11:11 (Deluxe), which won the Grammy for Best R&B Album at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards.
Even today, when artists fuse trap, R&B, and Afrobeats seamlessly, you can trace that blueprint back to Chopstix.
