Laolu Akins

Olaoluwa Akintobi (born 1946) popularly known as Laolu Akins is a Nigerian music producer who as worked with artists such as Shina Peters, Onyeka Onwenu, Adewale Ayuba, Mike Okri and Christy Essien-Igbokwe. He was the producer of Shina Peter's Ace and Shinamania albums and Adewale Ayuba's Bubble album.[1]

Akintobi was educated at a Lagos Town Council financed school in Yaba. In his adolescence, he played regularly with a duo of friends from high school, Berkley Ike Jones and Mike Gbenga Odumosu. The trio were influenced by British and American rock groups and soul music, Akins then joined a band called The Clusters which experimented with rock music. Soon, Akins and his friends combined with the Lijadu Sisters to start a group called Afro-Collection. When Ginger Baker moved to Nigeria in 1971, he organized a band, Salt with Laolu Akins as drummer,[2] Salt played in Lagos clubs and later went on a European and American tour with Baker.

Upon their return, Laolu co-founded a group called Blo, the band recorded some afro-rock songs such as Preacher Man and Native doctor.[3] Blo recorded their first album Chapter One, a psychedelic rock record under EMI label. Sales of the album did not meet EMI's expectations and the band eventually left EMI to record their next album with a Decca affiliate. Between 1974 and 1976 the band released three more records, Phase II, Step Three and Phase IV. However, sales of the albums were not encouraging, and after Step Three Odumosu left to join Osibisa.[4] Akin traveled to England and learned the craft of music production at Orange Production Centre.

In the early 1980s, BLO productions was co-founded by Akintobi, the business went in to produce records for a number of successful artists such as Christy Essien Igbokwe, Kris Okotie and Onyeka Onwenu.

Between 1989 and 1998, Akins worked with Sony Music Entertainment as A&R controller. He owns a studio in Ikeja with the business name Excel Studio.[1]

References
  1. Ndaisaiah, Solomon (November 8, 2016). "Nigeria: Celebrating Music Legend, Laolu Akins at 70". Leadership. Abuja.
  2. 1944-, Collins, John,. Fela : Kalakuta notes (Second ed.). Middletown, Connecticut. p. 278. ISBN 9780819575401. OCLC 907774892.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. 1944-, Collins, John, (1992). West African pop roots. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. p. 103. ISBN 9781439904978. OCLC 646821561.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. "BLO". Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe. 2009-09-20. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
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