Nigerian music executive, Michael Collins Ajereh, popularly known as Don Jazzy, has opined that some of Afrobeats’ best songs were born out of collaborations with different artistes.

Speaking on the Crea8torium podcast, Don Jazzy argued that proximity fostered faster collaboration and more spontaneous songwriting.

According to him, for instance, D’Banj’s ‘Olorun Maje’s idea was from D’Prince and Sunday Are, who he said were their manager then.

He said, “I have a theory that says that most of the great music that we made in Afrobeats was when all of us were living together.

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He noted that D’Banj’s ‘Olorun Maje’ and Dr Sid’s ‘You Bad, You Want It’ as examples of tracks that emerged from casual studio interactions during the Mo’Hits era.

“Sunday Are was complaining that D’Prince didn’t want to go to radio interviews. He came to report to me, but I didn’t even listen because I was working in the studio. So, I told him to go and report to D’Banj because he is like a military man.

After he reported, D’Banj started shouting at D’Prince. Then D’Prince now came back into the studio where I was with Sunday Are and pretended like he was dusting some equipment and then began to sing, ‘Some people they want make I cry, some people they want make I die, why? Olorun Maje oooo.’

“The lyrics just fell precisely to the beat I was making at that time. I told him to pause, that I like it. That was how the song was born.

“Also, the song ‘You bad, you want it’ was from Dr Sid, who randomly walked into the studio and started rhyming to a beat I was making,” he recalled.

Don Jazzy noted that the creative process had become more fragmented in recent years, with fewer artists working under the same roof.

He said he still preferred entering the studio with a specific artist in mind and urged younger musicians to collaborate more closely to strengthen their craft.