Born in the heart of South London, Maleek Berry – real name Maleek Shoyebi – grew up listening to some of the biggest names in R&B from Tevin Campbell, Boyz II Men, Jodeci and of course the one and only King of Pop, Michael Jackson. It was at this time, at just the tender age of 14 that he saw young stars break into the American music industry. Although worlds apart from the shores of London this did not deter him, but rather spark his ever growing love of the music industry.

Like most, Berry started off his career in the church, forming a group with two close friends. Managing to get his hands on a little pre-production setup – Fruity Loops – the group began writing, producing and performing their own songs at the ages of 14 and 15, only to disband at 16. However, the experience didn’t leave Berry disillusioned, as he was the brains behind a lot of the group’s records and they all remain very close till this day.

Fast Forward to 2009, Berry spent years working on his craft in between formal education – attaining a Bachelors degree in Computer Science – learning to play the piano by ear, which has played a major part in the maturity of his sound. Even with this big achievement he knew deep down what his true calling was – music.

Being the creative soul that he is, Maleek Berry wasn’t satisfied with only working on his home turf, but wanted to spread his wings to the Motherland. In the summer of 2011 he flew out to Nigeria for a family holiday, but managed to take advantage of this trip and make great connections that would later change his status to an international producer. Through good friend and artist Davido, Berry was able to spark relationships with artists such as Wizkid , Naeto C, Wande Coal – of which he is currently working on records for. He also went on the produce the hit ‘Carolina’ (one of the biggest singles in Nigeria in 2011/2012) by Sauce Kid featuring Davido, which ushered Sauce Kid back into the Nigerian music scene after a brief hiatus and his 2013 smash hit single "The Matter" Featuring Wizkid. Maleek Berry has gone on to produce hits such as "The Matter" with Wizkid,  "Baby Hello" for Wande Coal, "Lagos To Kampala" for Runtown and Wizkid and much more.

The last quarter of 2015 was another big one for Maleek Berry as he went on to executive produced Nigerian star  Wande Coal's highly anticipated sophomore album "WANTED", which earned him a lot of respect in the music industry in Africa. Not only did he produce 9 songs on the album but also managed to nab a feature on Track 11 "Weekend" which has become a favourite with the ladies.

After building a solid production catalog and name for himself in the industry , October 2015 marked a major shift in Maleek Berry's career as he took center stage this time with his first official solo release as an Artist entitled "For My People" featuring UK Rap artist Sneakbo. With positive reviews an official video was released in January 2016 and play-listed on MTV Base UK & MTV Base Africa, including many others. The video "For My People" reached 100k views online in under 4 weeks, giving Maleek Berry a massive introduction into his solo career. 

In April 2016 Maleek released the self-produced smash hit "Kontrol" which has gone on to become viral on the internet gathering millions of streams online across different platforms. The official video was released on his birthday in August and managed get over 100k views in less than a week.

Even with all his achievements to date, who knows what the future holds for this young producer. In his own words he plans to, “Create timeless music that will hopefully last longer than his generation.”

Fusion of R&B Pop & Hip Hop. Spirit of the 90's. Blissfully Ignorant. 

Coastal Carolina Student
ibmaynes@g.coastal.edu

MR EAZI is the creative and business visionary leading African music into its future.
As a recording artist, the Nigerian multihyphenate is the voice behind afropop hits “Pour Me Water,” “Skin Tight” (featuring Efya) and “Leg Over,” as well as groundbreaking collaborations with the likes of Beyoncé, Bad Bunny and J Balvin. A serial entrepreneur, he’s also the founder of emPawa Africa, a talent incubator program which funds and mentors emerging African artists, and the digital music aggregator emPawa Distribution — initiatives hailed by CNN, Rolling Stone, Billboard and Forbes for their forward-thinking approach. Mr Eazi’s ascent into global stardom has seen him clock over 4 billion streams worldwide, making him one of the most streamed African artists worldwide. 

Born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria and raised in Lagos, Mr Eazi began his music career while attending college in Ghana, where his side hustles included promoting concerts and running a concierge service shuttling wealthy kids to parties. His first-ever recording, made on a whim, became an accidental local hit, prompting him to self-release a mixtape, About to Blow, in 2013. Blending touches of Ghanaian highlife music and Pidgin slang with Nigerian chord progressions and R&B vocal inflection, he soon developed a mellowed-out spin on afropop which he dubbed Banku Music, after the popular Ghanaian comfort food dish. 

After returning to Nigeria to work a corporate job in engineering, Eazi decided to make music his full-time focus, using a $1,000 gift from friends to fund the video for his breakthrough 2015 single, “Skin Tight.” Arriving just as afrobeats was exploding into global consciousness, Eazi quickly became an international figure, performing across Africa, Europe and the United States, pouring his travels into the critically-acclaimed  mixtapes Life is Eazi, Vol. 1: Accra to Lagos (2017) and Life is Eazi, Vol 2: Lagos to London (2018). These projects and their resulting hit singles, along with Eazi’s fashion-forward personal style, helped land Eazi in the pages of Vogue, THE FADER, Paper and other influential outlets. 

Fiercely independent and digitally savvy, Eazi has resisted opportunities to sign with major record labels, instead choosing to operate his own companies and steer his own fate. Since establishing his career, he has answered the call to mentor and support other emerging artists from Africa. Taking inspiration from his own experiences participating in tech incubators as a young entrepreneur, he launched emPawa Africa in late 2018. In its first round of investment, emPawa Africa provided US$300,000 —or US$3,000 each — in funding for 100 artists from 11 countries, launching the careers of rising stars like Nigeria’s Joeboy and Ghana’s J.Derobie. The initiative’s success led Eazi to form additional companies like emPawa Distribution, the first digital music aggregator focused solely on servicing African music to the global market; and emPawa Live, a college concert series, to support this growing ecosystem of talent. 

2019 proved to be a watershed year for Eazi, on several accounts. April saw him make his debut at Coachella, where he was one of only two African artists to play the world’s most prestigious music festival. He was featured on two tracks from Beyoncé’s The Lion King: The Gift album, and appeared alongside Latin superstars Bad Bunny and J Balvin’s on "Como Un Bebé," from the duo’s collaborative album Oasis. He has started 2020 once again on a high note, releasing the striking video for “Kpalanga,” and collaborating with DJ Neptune and Joeboy on “Nobody,” which has topped charts across several African countries while reaching #7 on Billboard’s World Digital Songs Sales Chart. One Day You Will Understand, a four-song EP of mellow afro R&B followed that Summer, with another EP, Something Else EP released in 2021. In May of 2020, Eazi appeared on the cover of Billboard’s Africa Now issue, the U.S. music bible’s first ever issue dedicated to African music. Forbes Africa also included him in its annual 30 Under 30 issue spotlighting the continent’s young thought leaders. 
Always thinking beyond music and looking at the bigger picture, Mr Eazi has founded and financed groundbreaking business ventures through Zagadat Capital, an pan-African venture capital fund whose motto is “Investing In Cool Shit.” Through Zagadat Capital, he invests mainly in Africa-founded tech startups that look to solve fundamental problems. Among these is pawaPay, an Africa-focused peer-to-peer payment platform which he invested in through its $9 million seed round in 2021, and which he believes could potentially reach a $1 billion valuation in the next two years. As a public figure with a large platform and voice, Mr Eazi believes it is duty to advocate for his fellow creatives and entrepreneurs.  
Even as he grows his business empire and doubles down on his goal of expanding opportunities for African creatives, Mr Eazi has not lost his thirst for creating music. In 2023, he will be releasing two full-length album projects. The first of these, titled Chop Life, Vol. 1: Mzansi Chronicles, was released in May 2023 and is the debut album from ChopLife SoundSystem, an Afro-dance music collective consisting of Mr Eazi and DJ Edu. 
After two mixtapes, two EPs and over 4 billion streams, the Nigerian afropop star will finally release his debut solo album, The Evil Genius, on Oct. 27. In a first-of-its-kind fusion of African music and art, each track on the project is represented by a unique, physical art piece, which Mr Eazi commissioned from a different contemporary African artist as he crossed the continent recording the album.

Born in Saginaw, Michigan, Algee has a compelling and inspiring story. In 2016 after just 30 days in Hollywood he booked the role of Ralph Tresvant in BET’s “The New Edition Story." In 2017 he released his EP Listen which charted #11 on iTunes, and co-stared in “Detroit” and the “The Hate U Give.” 
Algee can be seen in HBO’s newest hit drama “Euphoria” in which he plays McKay. 
'ATL' is part of a 2 part EP project.

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