Community Highlights: Meet Ben Obi of Savannah Street Music

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Obi.

Hi Ben, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I landed in Minneapolis, from London, England as a young teenager to attend the University of Minnesota. In the early ’90s, I was one of 3 music producers at Steven Greenberg’s, Funkytown Studios located in St. Louis Park, MN. Steven is the producer behind the worldwide number one song Funkytown. By the mid ’90s, I and my then music production partner, Dr. Pele, teamed up with the former Head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, Dennis Green, to form Savannah Street Music. Savannah Street Music is a music production, licensing and artist development company. By the mid-2000s after engineering and producing 100’s of artists locally, nationally, and internationally, I was hired by former Timberwolves player, Troy Hudson to be his Director of Music at his Minneapolis-based Record Company. Fast forward another 10 years, and Savannah Street Music is still operational. Being a British Nigerian, I have the distinction of being the first African in the Twin Cities to have had a music production national distribution deal. I had a deal with the now-defunct Navarre Corp. I’ve also had the distinction of working with a majority of the Africans in diaspora in the Twin Cities and a majority of the successful urban artists to emerge from the Twin Cities. Additionally, I served as an Adjunct Instructor at the now-closed nationally accredited music school, The Minneapolis Media Institute. I taught music production, recording and, the music business.

In a music career spanning about 30 years, I’ve mentored, instructed, consulted, engineered and produced several artists and have released over 1000 commercially available songs, selling and streaming 100,000’s of records.

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road. Struggle #1: Money. Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of making a living practicing my passion, however, there have been several bumps along the road. Once, I was working on a project in London, England, when I got back to Minneapolis, my studio had been broken into and robbed. I had gotten 50% of my production fees but couldn’t complete the production work because my equipment had been stolen. I had to sell by car, borrow some money and live in my studio. Shout out to my girlfriend at the time for borrowing me money to buy new equipment. Funny enough, it landed up being a blessing because I was able to buy a new computer and keyboards which fueled my creativity for the next several years.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Savannah Street Music is a music production, licensing and artist development company. We assist artists with accomplishing their music and entertainment goals. We work with 3 kinds of artists/companies:

#1: Very new artists, that are just getting started.
#2: Artists that have some experience but are looking to working on a new project or create additional awareness.
#3: Established artists that may have millions of streams, looking to switch up their brand or sound.

We specialize in finding true solutions for the issues the artists we work with are facing. We meet with an artist and talk to them or their management about their goals, obstacles and desires. From these initial free meeting, we set up a course of action. The course of actions range from finding, suggesting, recording and producing songs to assisting an artist with promotion or creating awareness. We also license music, connect people to people and facilitate various investments.

What sets Savannah Street Music apart is our ability to provide the artists we work with, with long-term music and entertainment solutions. We help create self-sustaining artists. We provide very high value to our clients. We have clients/ artists that have worked with us for over 10 years, with several of the artists we work with being 5 years or more old clients. I (Ben Obi) have engineered, mixed, produced, managed, consulted and worked with a majority of successful African, Caribbean and African- American artists to emerge from the Twin Cities area. Savannah Street Music services include the following:

* Song Mixing
* Music recording and production
* Music business consultation and negotiations
* Artist marketing
* Music licensing

What matters most to you? Why?
Integrity – I want to make a positive long-term impact on every artist I work with. They may not realize the impact in the moment; however, upon reflection, I would like them to come away feeling and being a stronger, more knowledgeable, accomplished artist.