Yogobeats: from being a music artiste to a thriving producer

This year marks seven years since David Juma Maganga, famously known as Yogobeats, engaged in the music industry. The gifted music producer started as a musician writing and singing, but production challenges were an opportunity for him to become a music producer.

Music fans say it takes more than a talent to get to the top, consistency, uniqueness and creativity out of every track list produced made Yogo get to stood out for seven years in the game

Yogobeats was born in September 1992 in Mwanza Region, but grew up in Dar es Salaam. He went to school in the city before going to South Africa for further studies.

Being self-inspired and passionate about music, he decided to study music engineering for two years.

‘’ I started as an artiste and songwriter. Though I wished to venture into producing music after I have excelled as an artiste, challenges changed my plans and I have never regretted such a decision todate,’’ says Yogobeats.

Yogo on the beats is not an anonymous promo verse upon the ears of Bongo Flava fans in a number of hit songs including Nandy’s ‘Kata’ featuring Ommy Dimpoz and Niwaze by Ruby featuring the Mafik and many others.

Yogo shares that the name came as a joke from a girl whom he did not want to disclose.

‘’I was at the studio that day preparing a certain song which had the word ‘Yogo’ in the chorus. A lady from the crew recorded at the microphone ‘Yogo on the beats’ as a joke but people started teasing me with it and it went on and on. I took time to listen it over and over, I found it edgy and cool, I decided to use it then as a promo of my production works, people kept calling me Yogo to the extent it went viral and somehow it became my identity,’’ detailed Yogobeats.

As an artiste himself, Yogo didn’t take time to establish his empire. He shares that working with big artistes over the years gave him a push deeper into the industry

‘’People are now amazed that I have released a lot of songs in a short time but I started releasing songs way back. There was a time when I had five hits doing well in different radio stations and TV and no Dj or presenter knew who Yogo was,” says Yogobeats while giggling.

Being in the industry for many years made Yogobeats understand the game and what it takes to stay floating no matter what other talent emerge. He says he appreciates criticism more than compliments as “being showered with compliments can make you lose creativity,” says Yogo

Growing up, his fellow students used to bully and mock his creative works, but he used that as a motivation to do better beyond their expectations.

“Personally, I like receiving more criticism than credits as they make me do extraordinary things. I have been raised around criticism from the time I started my music hustle. Yet surprisingly enough the ones who used to criticize me are now my biggest fans. I still maintained my circle of friends until now, for they are the ones who had my back since the first day,” he adds

Yogo’s recent work of art is Alikiba’s ‘Only One King’ album, he is among the many talents behind the production.

Yogo shares why King Kiba’s album took almost a year since the artiste’s previous set of songs.

He says, “I don’t work on vibes, I document all the details before going on set. Once I start working I stick to my schemed plan that I had arranged based on the music plan. Once the project came in, we took a seat and discussed how we wanted the album to be. This made each song stand out with its own taste and flavour for particular fans.”

Despite massive experience in music recording, he says the song ‘Tamba’ gave him the hardest time in producing it since the song required beats from music instruments such as a guitar which was once distorting the song. The gifted music producer says he used some extra mind and musical skills to make it work.

Sticking up to his desk as a producer, he adapted to identify artistes and nature of fans supporting their music as noted from their lyrics which do not interfere with what he does.

“Am a producer, a businessman. I sell beats and an artiste sells lyrics. I only regard standards on my work and so do artistes stick to theirs. Sometimes people listen and appreciate the beats and not feel the lyrics in. I apply that to my whole production life. Each artiste has his type of fans and simply gets identified from the lyrics and reputation of the ones listening to it.” says Yogobeats.