TyStringz is a cloud
software engineer and Afrobeats enthusiast making a name for himself
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By Brennan Stebbins
TyStringz graduated from
college at age 19 and earned a master’s degree in computer science at 22, and
then Microsoft came calling to hire him as a cloud software engineer.
The Nigerian native says he
can write codes from morning to night, but his real passion lies elsewhere.
“Music is not work for me,”
he says. “Music is fun.”
And so TyStringz, after
finding success in his professional life, has now set out to make a name for
himself as an artist, and he’s not wasting any time. He released his debut
single just last year, and the official video earned a quarter of a million
views in just 10 months. That single, “Shalaye (Reloaded),” went so far as to chart
at No. 2 on the iTunes Chart Worldwide Genre. It even went above the most
popular Afrobeats song of 2021 – “Essence” by Whiz Kid – for a couple of
days.
His
latest release, “Shy,” already has 50,000 plays in only two weeks.
“My
music is a blend of different genres and styles of music,” he says. “I play six
musical instruments and I can play you jazz, soul, Delta blues, bluegrass, rock
and roll, R&B. I’ll play anything, but I’m Nigerian and I’ve only been in
the states since 2015 so when I play those styles, those elements, those
melodies you can hear the Afrobeats influence. I’m very big on lyrics and very
big on melody. Melody is what draws emotion with the lyrics.”
Music
has always been an escape for TyStringz, and when he found himself working from
home during the pandemic, he decided to pick up his acoustic guitar one day and
write “Shalaye,” the first song he’d ever written in his life.
He
followed that up with “Far Away,” with the official video being viewed 550,000
times in the last three months. It’s an uplifting song he wrote about being in
the kind of happy relationship with someone where “you want to get lost with
somebody.”
“We’ve
all been in that happy place in a relationship or in our life where we feel
like man, nothing can go wrong from here,” he says. “Whether it’s 10 or 20
minutes, an hour, two weeks, whatever. That happiness, that is the melody.”
TyStringz
teamed up with L.A.X. to produce “Shy,” which he says covers every aspect of
Afrobeats from the melody to the emotion and the vibe it conveys. He wants to
give listeners a sense of feeling from the music and its lyrics, which talk
about a woman “trying to blossom but there’s a lot of things inside her that
she can’t express herself,” he says. “Whether you like it or not, you are
special.”
TyStringz
tries to write songs with what he calls a “sunshine melody.” He wants to
incorporate that happiness regardless of the style he’s writing. “Body” is more
of a club banger, while he envisions “Far Away” being listened to at a wedding
or tea party.
“What
I’m trying to do with Afrobeats is blend it with different styles of music to
appeal to a wide global audience,” he says. “Afro jazz, Afro pop, Afro R&B.
But I’m using elements that are familiar.”
He’s
already got as many as 30 songs recorded and ready for release, and anticipates
the first of those will be out in a month or two.
Make
sure to stay connected to TyStringz on all platforms for new music, videos and
social posts.
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