Discover GMK, The Trusted Sound Engineer Behind All Our Alte Faves

Over the Christmas holidays, our friends at The Native hosted Native University, a pop-up and panel discussions, which rounded off with a talk on ‘The Making of rare.’.

In this talk, Odunsi, was joined by the album’s A&R, Seni, music mogul, Phiona and the album’s trusted sound engineer, GMK (Quddus King).

As a sound engineer, GMK is responsible for delivering high quality sonics, mixing the beats and the vocals of a song, such that, the right elements are emphasised and components that might go otherwise unheard are amplified.

He was an integral part of the making of rare. as we know it, and his role became more fortified when it came to mixing and mastering the album, which is GMK’s area of expertise.

Speaking with Konbini about his role as the ‘Daddy of rare‘., GMK said:

“[W]e had this idea of doing all the masters together in order to get the tracks to flow into each other so it won’t feel like you skipped a track. Sounds very easy as I’m saying it but it wasn’t. Took trial and error but I’m really happy with what we were able to do.”

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Spending his early days taking trips to Fela’s Shrine with his parents, owing to his father’s friendship with the Kutis, GMK was inspired by the talented instrumentalists he saw growing up.

He started off by trying out the trumpet, then ditched that for the piano, before finally settling into musical engineering, which he learned professionally at the SAE institute.

Now, GMK is the go-to for the sound engineering needs of a whole class of Nigerian hitmakers, working on a plethora of different projects — from Odunsi’s entire debut album to Santi’s incredible roll of singles — simultaneously.

As a producer — most recently he produced DRB’s comeback “Necessary” — GMK has also been hailed as a force to be reckoned with, as “Gangsta Fear” and “Jungle Fever”, both produced by him, played on OVO sound radio back in 2017.

Much like his peers in the production game, GMK tips us off to a couple of upcoming projects from him this year, looking to add to the few tracks he has to his name, saying:

“I am currently working to on two bodies of work. One being a producer album and the other has me rapping and singing on it.

I am extremely excited about the producer tape cause I’ve been able to get some really great artists to feature on it, and I can’t wait to show it off to the world.”

Well, we can’t wait to hear it, and if his discography is anything to go by, we’re in for a treat!

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