If you’ve spent any time with Afrobeats in the last few years, you’ve already heard him. Echo produced Qing Madi’s “American Love,” the slow-burning love song that has passed 50 million streams on Spotify. He’s produced records for Omah Lay, Young Jonn, Joeboy and Fireboy DML, Fave, Yemi Alade, Ayo Jay and Mahriisah, to mention a few. His sound is warm, patient and quietly detailed. The drums sit right, the space is deliberate, and nothing is there by accident.
Sunrise is the first time all of that comes under his own name. It’s a producer’s EP in the truest sense. Echo builds the world, then hands the mic to vocalists whose voices fit it. The result moves between late-night Afrofusion, R&B-leaning songs and dance-floor records, held together by one ear.
” I’ve spent a long time making other people’s moments. Sunrise is me saying, this is what I hear when the room is empty. Every artist on it is someone whose voice I couldn’t stop thinking about.”
The title fits the moment. After years in the studio shaping other people’s breakthroughs, Echo is stepping into the light himself, and he’s bringing his collaborators with him.
