Sammy Soso's Secret Behind Producing Tyla's "Water" and Her Debut Album

U.K.-bred Sammy Soso holds the main producer credit on Tyla’s Grammy-winning track “Water.”

That viral, genre-fusing sensual dance floor single was released to the world in July of 2023; Soso’s first-ever production credit came in June of 2017. Six years of craft development is not much time to work towards top music accolades and sheer sonic reinvention, yet, calling Soso’s first song with Tyla, and now resulting album, anything less than innovative would be remiss.

Tyla’s ‘popiano’ pocket, as she calls it, which includes amapiano/Afrobeats rhythms and choral layering, R&B silk-riddled main vocals and harmonies, and pop song structuring, is so distinct it seems that only a specifically aligned producer could have provided her with her overarching instrumental vision. Soso has producer credits on 10 of 14 songs on Tyla’s self-titled debut body of work. Tyla has said she recorded 130 songs for the album, and Soso claims to OkayAfrica that they only didn’t use two of the songs that they worked on together.

How did Soso garner the proper skill set and instincts to execute this musical equilibrium for Tyla? The answer is four-pronged. He grew up in a Ghanaian household in the U.K. and his parents played West African music all the time. He went to church every Sunday and became engrossed in the harmonious ecstasy of the choir. He was particularly struck by the virtuosity of Timbaland's world-building with Missy Elliot and Aaliyah. However, no music struck the chord of his soul more than arguably the greatest pop star to ever live, Michael Jackson. “That way he stacks his harmonies on ‘Leave Me Alone,’ I can never have any words to describe that feeling when I listen,” Soso proclaims. “From ‘Smooth Criminal’ to ‘Billie Jean,’ with the driving bass lines... you're just like, ‘Why is everything so clean?’”

If there is one adjective to use to describe Tyla’s production it would have to be pristine. Within a barrage of world-intertwining tones, there is clarity and polish to every soundscape. Soso developed his ability this past half-decade with British Nigerian super-producer P2J for artists like Wizkid and Omah Lay, but it wasn’t until he met Tyla that he found the quintessential source to channel his pure hybrid approach.

We spoke to the burgeoning man behind the boards to discover how through Tyla he found synchronicity. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

It’s been reported that there was an over two-year development of Tyla and her sound by Epic Records. After all of that, how did you become the main guy?

Sammy Soso: Tyla's journey before me, she was wandering around Dubai, Nigeria, Ghana, trying to figure out the sound for a minute. She had been working with producers, trying to explain it, but trying to explain something new is very difficult because it's not been done before. She was saying, “I want to mix pop and amapiano,” and everyone was like, “Okay, we can do that.” Then they’d get an amapiano beat and try to put pop vocals on it, but that's not what she meant. Once our stars aligned, and we came into contact, (“Water”) was exactly what she was looking for. I didn't even know she was looking for that, because I never heard the brief. When I met her, she said, “This is what I've been asking for. I've been wanting to create a genre called ‘popiano’ where I'm bringing amapiano to the “popular” world.” It should have elements of R&B, amapiano, Afrobeats, and soul. I want to make it so that this African girl is not just an Afrobeats artist or an African artist, but a pop artist that’s African.” When the gang of four (producers and writers Ari PenSmith, Mocha Bands, Believve, and myself) and Tyla finally met, this sound was created.

How would you describe your energy together in the studio?

Before we start the sessions, we give thanks and say a little prayer. Then we just have fun. It's like going to your cousin's when it’s Easter weekend and there's so much food and drink around. People are playing PS5, dominoes or card games and music's playing in the background. Most of the time we are just having conversations. Call it a 10-hour session, eight hours of the time it’s that. It's so free. You can really hear that in the music.

Tyla, Gunna, Skillibeng - Jump (Official Lyric Video)

How do you perceive you and your crew’s ability to naturally fuse genres and sounds? What have you figured out about that which makes your music with Tyla so effective?

It’s a spiritual thing. Like “Jump” is very Caribbean, Mocha Bands and Believve are Caribbean. Me, Tyla, and Ari Pensmith are African. We're West African, Nigerian, and Ghanaian, and she's South African. Then with Mocha and Tyla being heavily U.S.-based and us being U.K.-based, there's already like four or five different types of cultures in there. The chords are very R&B, but the drums and the percussion are very amapiano. Then the bounce is set in certain pockets of Afrobeats and the log drums bring it back to South Africa, but the vocals are R&B and pop. It just naturally happened. It's not the most intentional thing. But once it happened, it stayed there in the fusion between those genres.

There was also the first era where African music became a thing in the U.K. with artists like Mr Eazi…

That was when Afrobeats really started slowing down and it became like R&B Afro.

Right! I would say Tyla sort of splits the difference tempo-wise between that and traditional Afrobeats or amapiano.

Exactly. Which is crazy. And that's another thing that gets everyone. On a song like “Breathe Me,” the beat is pulsating. Then the chords are really house and R&B. Then she just floats right in the middle. All of those elements play a part in the magic.

What impresses me about your rhythmic style is the layering of multiple drum sounds. How many percussion sounds do you have on something like “Safer”?

“Safer” I made with Ceebeaats. She’s a young producer from the U.K. as well. When we were making it, we were just having the time of our life and there were at least 30 percussion channels. They were in stacks and then condensed. You know you can never… actually you can have too many sounds, but you know it’s just about getting that feeling of the right sounds and pockets bouncing off each other. When Ceebeaats sent me that percussion she had added to it, it was a no-brainer. Then we added the harmonic choir sounds so it was euphoric.

Tyla - Safer (Official Lyric Video)

Can we talk about that crowd vocal hook thing you do together? That’s something that has been prominent pre-Tyla with people like Asake, but why does it work so well for the Tyla aesthetic? Then how do you balance that with more R&B vocal layering?

When we did “Safer” I already had that in the beat. Then Mocha went over that sound, again, to give it even more emotion. Then I turned her vocals into a vocal sample, for “Ohhh, runnin.” We were just like, “How can this song make you feel some type of way? What buttons can we press so the listener feels exactly how we felt when we were creating it?” How do we do that? A lot of the time it’s from that spiritual sound when three or more of us are gathered and we all just chime in on a song. The key for us is how we place and where we place those chants.

What do you think has been the most essential choice you’ve made to elevate your success as a producer?

When I’m creating, I just think “How do I want this to make me feel?” When I have an idea, I try to get it to sound like what it sounds like in the crazy utopia in my head. I'm trying to recreate that. I'm just going with the feeling. I'm not really like the most musically intellectual person, I just go with how it sounds and how it feels. Does it make me want to move? Or if I'm in the mood to just bang my head and scream my face, does the music make me do that? So whatever emotion I'm trying to evoke, I ask myself, “Does it do that? Or does it do the opposite?” I think that's the only way.