Music  

ID Cabasa…The Unfinished Business of Afrobeats’ Heroes

By Chinonso Ihekire 25 May 2024   |   4:10 am The year was 2006. It was the era of hopeless romance in Nigerian music, with RnB taking the center-stage. The Styl Plus quintet had just released their debut album dubbed, Expressions, where iconic songs like Olufunmi became instant classics that shaped the global image of Naija RnB.

The year was 2006. It was the era of hopeless romance in Nigerian music, with RnB taking the center-stage. The Styl Plus quintet had just released their debut album dubbed, Expressions, where iconic songs like Olufunmi became instant classics that shaped the global image of Naija RnB. The future of Nigerian RnB, at that time, could best be imagined as a thriving market of global talent. And, with the likes of Tems, Ayra Starr, Wizkid, Ckay, Fireboy, and many others, it has become a dream come true and definitely one well deserved. 

Now, some spirited industry veterans such as, Olumide Ogunade, professionally known as ID Cabasa, have decided to recreate some of these classics, extending their legacy to younger generations.

After starting off with a remake of 9ice’s Photocopy, fusing fresh Hip Hop energy from Vector, last December, he has now returned with a remake of Styl Plus’ Olufunmi, tapping the vibrant voices of Fireboy, Odumodublvck and BOJ. The renowned music producer tells Guardian Music that these singles are a prelude to his forthcoming album of remakes dubbed, Unfinished Business.

“And this album is not just a one off thing; I intend to do other volumes. We need the experience and the wisdom of the old and we need the youthfulness and inspiration of the new just to make sure that we are able to keep this culture running.” 

ID Cabasa’s imprint, both as a producer and as the founder of Coded Tunes Records, has shaped the careers of several mega stars including 9ice, Olamide, Reminisce, Banky W, 2Shotz, Lord of Ajasa, among others. Interestingly, his discography with Olamide, from the YBNL star’s 2012 debut, ‘Eniduro’, to their 2019 comeback track, ‘Totori’ featuring Wizkid, and other unreleased tracks, is nearly as impressive as the bromance that the duo have maintained over the past decade. It’s easily one of the best ‘former label boss and artiste’ relationships that exists across the Afrobeats scene which has been often embattled with toxic artiste-record label breakups.  

Sharing nuggets from his wealth of experience, the 48-year-old hitmaker breaks down his mission to preserve Afrobeats’ biggest classics, reminding us why “a song is never truly finished”, and why more musicians — both old and new — should embrace the culture of sampling, as well as smoothen the ease of clearing their copyright; why other “old guys” or “OGs”, like him, should continue to move the needle in sustaining Afrobeats’ moment in the sun; and a bird’s eye view into his relationship with YBNL head honcho, Olamide.

Tell us about your new project, Unfinished Business 
I have been trying to do something new for a while now. And, like, I’ve been in the industry for a while, and I tend to want to also study how the trends work and change in the industry. So, over time, what I’ve been doing is I’ve been observing what has been going on in terms of sound. I was having a conversation sometime in 2022, with Olamide Baddo, and we were talking about the old classics that we have in Nigeria with the current conversation that is trying to trump the labours of our heroes past.

And in my words, I said, ‘Look, I don’t think any song’s usability in terms of its usefulness and all of that can be finished. I decided to do a project where I reimagine songs that were made some time back. I named the project, Unfinished Business, because I feel that every created thing, either music, art or anything definitely will leave a lacuna for it to be recreated, which means you can never finish the business of making anything out of something; there will always be something new that can come from something that already exists because for me that is even the bane of creativity — creating something that has never existed before.

It is more of you looking, looking at something that already exists to now bring something new. I decided to initially remake just some hits from my catalogue, with the likes of 9ice, Ruggedman, Olamide, and so on, but I felt like if it is for the culture then it should not be restricted to my catalog.

So, I started seeking rights to remake those other classics that started this current sound we call Afrobeats. For any of these songs, I bring in the new guys that I think are making waves now and can recreate the song. I recreate the beats, and then I bring in these guys to create new verses. We still bring major elements from the old songs like either the hook or a particular part of the instrumental that actually resonates with people that we just want to create nostalgia and I believe we are doing well at that right now.

How has your experience been with clearing these records? 
It has been hectic and stressful. At some point I was going to just stick to my catalogue. But I had to stay on because I knew that the industry is in its formative stage. Most of the bottlenecks come from the people handling the business for the artiste; so you can’t really blame these people for what we perceive as a bottleneck; they just want to make sure that the rights are well catered for and that they also protect the rights of their principal. The process is easier abroad.

There is a need for all the stakeholders in the industry to actually come together to foster these rights clearing processes for songs. Not just these classics but even new songs can be sampled. I see it as an abuse of control, where we just want to show that we are in charge so we can determine what goes out or what consent.

We need to be careful because anything you have control over also has potential not to grow. So if we really want to grow the industry there is a need to actually allow people to be able to use our work so that it will go beyond us; it will go even beyond our legacy whereby we’re still doing this thing.

So the bottlenecks were there, thanks to the likes of Vector that I worked with. He made it easy for me. Styl Plus as well. I’m still trying to get some more of these sorted, which is why I’m saying that some of these things are actually very difficult to come by. But to the guys that have already given to me, shout out to them. And I believe the industry can do better when it comes to actually clearing sounds and all of that.

Do you have any plans to include people like Olamide and other artistes you’ve worked with before in this album?
If Olamide is not on my album then I don’t have an album.

The very first song I recorded, which is supposed to be a joker, which Olamide posted a snippet some time ago on Instagram. A lot of people have been asking me to release it.

They didn’t even know about this project then. It was a remake of one of 9ice’s songs and Olamide is on it. Olamide is the only one on that particular song. I have more catalogs actually with 9ice than any other person. I have 9ice’s voice on all of the songs that I will be dropping that is our joint catalogue.

So, definitely some of my old guys I’m still bringing them in. And this album is not just a one off thing; I intend to do other volumes. At some point we might even do some newer song remakes with some of the OGs that I’ve worked with. We need ourselves. We need the experience and the wisdom of the old and we need the youthfulness and inspiration of the new just to make sure that we are able to keep this culture running.

I was misquoted recently online by people who did not listen to what I said at that particular podcast. We need the old guys. They should respect the new guys by being honorable because they actually laid the foundation. So that they all can keep this narrative of Afrobeats. We should own the narrative and the world should see our unity.

You are very close to Olamide. Tell us more about how this influences your dual creative processes? 
To really get what is going on, you also need to listen to people that have results. Olamide is undeniably one of the most successful Afrobeats artistes that have come out from this part of the world.

And inasmuch as he started with me, I respect his opinion because that opinion has been working for a very long time. Anytime I intend to create stuff, what I do is I go to Olamide and run these things by him. Sometimes, too, I also get to work with him.

I also do A&R for him, where I listen to all the songs before they drop. Beyond even the music, Olamide and I are family. And I can see he has a strong influence, especially as regards this particular album that I’m doing.

Some of these guys I featured might have been very hard for me to reach but thanks to Olamide. And the energy when we were recording was very crazy. Also, you definitely know he has an ear for music and his contributions every time we get to record music are definitely priceless.

So, that work relationship, which is stemming from the interpersonal relationship that the two of us have, is definitely helping us on this project. By the way, I would also be picking some of his own old catalogs to actually work on so yeah.

In today’s industry, what do you think are some of the improvements you like and others you think should be considered? 
The way people come into the limelight now is actually via social media. As far as I’m concerned, social media is a huge blessing to us, because now people have control of media. People have control. They use it to their advantage. We also see situations whereby these same platforms can actually give you shallowness.

Now, with most of all the top guys that are reigning, I have an assurance that Afrobeats is safe. I’ve had instances where people criticize them like they are not doing songs with substance and all of that. I tell them that the old should come and swear as if they were never young before.

People that were older than us were criticizing our music the way they are criticising these guys now. I see these guys taking the dream that we all had. They are taking it to places. You see Burna Boy outside the country.

You see the numbers of people that he has on stage in terms of the band, the massiveness of the band, the massiveness of the choreographers, and so on. You will know that these guys have actually worked. They are raising the bar. Nothing was created to be perfect. They will make mistakes.

Some of those mistakes will be corrected by the next generation after them which is where growth actually comes from. So, for me, I am happy now that it’s becoming more like you can actually sit in the corner of your house and you can create stuff and put it online. Sadly, it is more expensive now to actually do the music business.

But I also like the fact that now that the industry is coming up and people understand the structures of running a record label or being independent. I love the way it’s working. Then, there’s also this path that a lot of foreign investments are coming in but we also need to be careful on because those investments are actually loans. We don’t want to end up amassing so much debt at the end of the day and have to sell off everything that we have created.

What is your vision for your career moving forward?
Okay, before I got into the industry, I came with the narrative of being great, not just becoming successful. I don’t want people to just think of me as just another successful music producer.

I want you to remember me and remember my greatness. I want you to remember me not in comparison to anybody, but as ID Cabasa. Beyond the catalogue of hits and songs that I have done, I want people to remember the catalogue of people that I was able to raise around me and the catalogue of people I was also able to influence over time.