Some producers make music you hear, others make music you feel.

For Emmanuel Femi-Adejobi, better known as Nuel Beatz, the space between those two experiences is where the magic happens.

His approach to production is built around texture, emotion and an appreciation for the small details that can turn a collection of sounds into something that stays with you.

Music entered his life early.

Nuel began playing drums in church at the age of seven before picking up the keys in secondary school. But it was at university that his curiosity about music production became something more serious.

In 2015, he watched a friend build a beat using FL Studio. Seeing different instruments come together to form a complete composition caught his attention.

He wanted to try it himself.

That curiosity eventually became a career.

One of the moments that helped confirm the direction came through “Obodo” by CillSoul.

Inspired by his nostalgic connection to highlife, Nuel had created the instrumental as part of an experimental pack and initially had no idea where it would go.

CillSoul heard it.

He loved it.

When the finished record eventually came back to Nuel, the producer shed a tear.

It was more than hearing a beat come to life. It was the moment he realised production could become something much bigger for him.

His musical influences are equally broad.

Gospel remains his strongest influence, while producers such as Tay Iwar, Spax, Melvitto, Sarz, Juls and Emeka EO have expanded his creative palette.

From them, he has drawn an appreciation for rich harmonies, live instrumentation, restraint, experimentation and orchestration.

But despite all those influences, Nuel’s process always begins with the artist.

Before building the instrumental, he wants to understand the emotion and experience behind the song. The production then grows around that feeling.

That approach is evident in his work on Kotrell’s And Everything In Between, a project that moves through R&B, Afropop, Afro-Soul, ballads and Amapiano.

Rather than treating versatility as a collection of genres, Nuel sees his sound through something much simpler.

Sweetness.

It is a fusion of R&B, Juju, Fuji, Afropop and Afro-house, with soul sitting at its centre.

That philosophy continues with Sweetness Vol. 1, led by “Tell Me,” a project that explores love, life and faith.

For Nuel, production is ultimately about longevity.

The goal is not simply to make a song sound good today.

It is to create something that can become part of someone’s life.

The kind of record that brings back a memory years later.

The kind of song that still means something long after the first listen.

For a producer who started by watching a friend make a beat on FL Studio, that is a pretty ambitious place to land, and Nuel Beatz is still building toward it.