new Kyū, The Producer’s plan to mentor new artists and create hitmakers
Anyone with musical talent can release a song, but artist development coach Ngqabutho Mpofu wants to make sure it can be leveraged into a hit.
Using his almost two decades of knowledge of the music industry, Ngqabutho — known professionally as Kyū, The Producer — hopes to work with aspirational Pop and Modern RnB artists who have dreams of making it, BIG TIME.
Kyū began his company, LNTC Group, having noticed how difficult the industry is to navigate when first starting out. The business name is an acronym for “Life Narrated Through Creativity”, a mantra he wants others to repeat so creatives know they can build a life by chasing their dreams to creating music.
His vision is to provide music production and artist development to new musicians. Teach them how to develop their image, sound and cultivate a unique culture with their fans to generate a full-time income.
“I was frustrated with the music industry and seeing talented artists giving up because they didn’t have the tools to navigate the space, so I created LNTC Group to help aspiring artists,” Kyū said.
“I wanted to develop artists to understand how to leverage their independence through releasing radio-ready hit songs, building a fanbase and becoming an affluent artist, knowledgeable enough to navigate building a career with or without a record label.”
Kyū’s unconventional approach to artist development has been proven successful. He has achieved number 1’s and top 10 singles in some independent charts and has managed to push Pop and RnB artist Jorday, over 1 million stream threshold on streaming platform Spotify.
“The wealth of knowledge gained over the years was working and worth passing on so the artists I worked with wouldn’t have to ‘learn the hard way’,” the development coach said.
“I want to help to empower artists across the world to renew their mindset about believing that record deals are the only way to massive success.”
Kyū’s musical journey began from a young age in Zimbabwe with an obsession with Michael Jackson. The 7-year-old boy learned his dances by rewatching the same recording his parents had taped on VHS over and over again.
The family moved to London in 2001, where Kyū enrolled in a Summer School for gifted kids. The young boy built up his skills by improving his singing and dancing ability while also taking up the piano.
He later graduated from university with a degree in Music Technology. He began winning dance competitions and performing original music alongside some of the UK’s biggest stars, including Tinie Tempah, N-Dubz and Kid British. Eventually moving into songwriting for other artists, he first noticed a gap in the market for an artist advocate after selling two songs but received none of the royalties.
Based in London, Kyū, The Producer works across Manchester, Birmingham, Los Angeles, Florida, Germany, South Africa, Toronto and Nashville.
Over the next five years, he is looking to grow into a full-service Artist Development Agency, housing a record label, music publishing, commercial production and a marketing agency.
In 2019, he was recognised as one of the UK’s best producers, coming runner up for the British Songwriter and Producer of the year. He had previously received “The Princes Trust Young Person’s Award”, which gave him the capital to help start his company back in June 2014.
