Remembering Dokta Frabz: The unique sound

See, it came as a shocker to a lot of people because we’d only heard about Don Jazzy on all of D’Banj’s production until that record. But see, Dr. Frabz had been around for a minute before then, but as an Iyana Ipaja boy, he needed his big break.

There was a long-running rumour that ‘Why Me’ is actually birthed off Frabz’s beat, even though he was never credited for the record. When you listen to ‘Jasi’ and ‘Riranwo’ by Weird MC – records produced by Frabz, arguments that he produced ‘Why Me’ might not seem far-fetched.

Those records have a similar patterns. Nonetheless, ‘Jasi,’ which was initially planned for D’Banj’s third album ended up on Mo’Hits‘ collaborative album, Curriculum Vitae and that commenced his fine four-year run between 2006 and 2010.

See, he was a unique producer. He had an unique way of fusing his Hip-Hop background with sped up African percussion to form Nigerian sounds. His sounds and chord progressions were always eccentric and quite different. He was like the Pop version of fellow Nigerian producer, Kraftmatiks.

His sound was different, fresh and maybe even a little foreign.

That wouldn’t be a surprise if you read his 2009 interview with Modern Ghana where he said, “At some point, R & B, then Rock, Lagbaja, Hip Hop with Biggy and Tupac…I grew up listening to all kinds of music that was ever in vogue, classical music included.”

So, I picked up the interest from there. I felt if one could develop the skill here in Nigeria with the softwares, eventually I might be better than these people.

Alongside Samklef, Kraftmatiks and Don Jazzy, he was one of the Nigerian producers who made the early Trap hits that the Nigerian mainstream knew and loved.

He produced a few records on eLDee’s Big Boy album, Durella‘s sophomore album, King of The Zanga and a couple of records off Omawumi’s debut album, Wonder Woman.

He was also in a relationship with Omawumi at the time.

Some of those trap records are ‘Lagos Party’ for Banky W, ‘Ako Mi Ti Poju’ for Naeto C and ‘Thank God’ for DaGrin and Omawumi. He also produced ‘Slow Slow’ for Chuddy K, Shank’s ‘Too late’ and Weird MC’s ‘Riranwo’ among others.

He also produced ‘Idi Nla’ for Lala featuring DaGrin as well as ‘Efi Mi Le’ for YQ and DaGrin, ‘Enu Ose‘ for Durella, ‘Jebele’ for Kween,’ ‘Murda’ for Seyi Shay, ‘Bombay’ by Wizkid featuring Phyno amongst other records. He also had an interesting run with Storm Records.

At some point, he performed as an artist and had his own songs. He featured on ‘Ex-Girlfriend’ by Naeto C and released his own record, ‘Follow Me‘ featuring eLDee and Shank. In 2014, he released his own record, ‘Where Is The Love?’

News of his death on February 27, 2020 will shake the entertainment industry.

Who was he?

Real name Ayorinde Faboro, Dokta Frabz was born and raised in Lagos, where he started his music career.

He started from the Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral in Ikeja, where he played the keyboard, the drum, and other Sunday School instruments as a kid.

His music talent won him several secondary school awards as the school pianist and choir leader at Doregos Private Academy in the Ipaga suburb of Lagos.

Frabz had his tertiary education at Covenant University, where he studied International Relations.

While he was studying at Covenant University, he discovered the production software called Fruity Loops and then his journey to becoming one of Nigeria’s best producers began.

Also called The Frabzinator, his journey to Mo’Hits began in 2004 when he produced ‘Bo Si Bi’ for K Switch and Large.

In 2014, he was the music director for the fourth season of Nigerian Idol. The last popular record he was know to produce was ‘Koronu‘ by Dessy featuring QDot and Oberz.