How Sunkanmi Kings is Quietly Shaping The Future of Nigerian Music

There is a particular kind of person the Nigerian music industry rarely celebrates publicly but constantly depends on behind the scenes. They are not always the face on the billboard or the artist standing at the centre of the stage, yet their fingerprints are all over the records shaping the culture. Oluwasegun Olabode, widely known as Sunkanmi Kings, belongs to that category.

Raised in Ikotun, Lagos, Sunkanmi Kings has spent years building a career across songwriting, A&R, and creative direction, disciplines that many people treat as separate professions, but which he has deliberately merged into a single creative practice. Currently serving as a Creative Director under Dangbana Republik, he has worked closely with artists including Bella Shmurda, Fola, and Shoday while steadily building a reputation as one of the emerging creative minds shaping contemporary Afrobeats from behind the scenes.

For Sunkanmi Kings, music did not begin with ambition or industry access. It started in church. Singing in the choir as a child became his first real introduction to songwriting, composition, and performance. Sometimes tasked with creating songs for Sunday services, he unknowingly began developing the instincts that would later define his professional career.

Growing up in Ikotun also shaped his understanding of discipline and self-reliance. According to him, the environment taught him early that opportunities were rarely handed to anyone, and survival depended heavily on initiative, consistency, and resilience. Those lessons would later become central to the way he approached the music business.

After graduating from the University of Abeokuta, his entry into the industry came quietly. Rather than emerging immediately as an artist or executive, he started as a background vocalist while also helping his brother write rap lyrics for competitions and studio sessions. That period gave him proximity to artists, recording sessions, and the realities of music production without the pressure of immediate visibility.

Over time, songwriting became the foundation of his career. Production followed naturally as he sought to better understand the sonic environment his lyrics existed within. A&R work then emerged from years spent inside sessions, observing what made records connect and what separated promising artists from sustainable ones. Eventually, creative direction became the bridge tying all those experiences together.

According to Sunkanmi Kings, one of the biggest problems facing developing artists is not necessarily talent, but inconsistency in identity. Many artists, he believes, have moments of brilliance without a long-term artistic direction capable of sustaining a career. His work as a creative director focuses on helping artists define a coherent sound, image, and artistic vision that can grow over time.

His collaborations with Bella Shmurda, Fola, and Shoday each contributed differently to his professional development. Working with Bella Shmurda exposed him to a level of discipline and preparation that permanently reshaped his understanding of professionalism. Fola, on the other hand, taught him the value of patience, precision, and attention to detail during the creative process.

Perhaps the clearest reflection of his creative philosophy is his ongoing work with Shoday, particularly the forthcoming EP “Breakfast,” which he describes as one of the strongest examples yet of identity, sound, and commercial ambition working together cohesively. For him, successful artist development happens when talent is matched with hunger, trust, and coachability.

Despite the growing profile of his work, Sunkanmi Kings remains remarkably measured about his own journey. He openly admits he is still learning, still building, and still navigating the industry one step at a time. Yet beneath that humility is a clear sense of purpose, a belief that African music is entering one of the most important eras in its history, and that creatives behind the scenes have a major role to play in shaping what comes next.

For Sunkanmi Kings, the mission has never simply been to make records. It has been to help artists build careers, identities, and bodies of work capable of lasting beyond trends. And as Afrobeats continues evolving into a permanent global force, his quiet influence within the culture is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.