Harmony Samuels’ nest of contingencies conspired and snowballed into a flourishing career. Ever resilient with the blood of a Nigerian, the journey began with talent, strength and determination, but even more importantly, his innate ability to succumb to his voice only and perhaps God’s amid the chaos. Harmony was the type of child who found God early on and held on to him as much as the talent he was bestowed with. At 4, he learned how to play the drums, piano and guitar in the church. His life could have easily been a straight path but the irony stuck. While trailing the holy path, he was surrounded by friends who were drug dealers. Harmony recounts, “I would go to Catholic school with white people who bullied me, then I would go back to the hood where my friends were dealing drugs on the street, then I would go to church, and it was just such an oxymoron because I experienced so many different cultures all at the same time.”
Despite the discrepancies that threatened to ostracise Harmony’s journey if it went by the natural course of life for good to be ruined by bad when nestled together, he rolled with the punches through obedience to God’s words and vehement determination. And what makes it even more interesting, is the subtle innocence of childhood friendships where the judgemental weight of good and bad seizes to determine platonic bonds. Harmony recounts amidst laughter a funny situation where a friend requested him to pray before committing a crime, “1 remember one time one of my friends told me he was about to go do something, and asked me to pray for him. There was value in me being the Christian guy in the crew.”
This quality also shows the truth in Harmony being an empath as he describes himself. He would later go on to intentionally work behind the scenes in the music industry as a songwriter and producer to help others grow instead of directly singing songs himself. “I’m an empath, and empaths do that, they’d rather work on everybody else than work on themselves because they find value in helping people.”
One’s curiosity peaks at this point to know what led to the epiphany of working behind the scenes rather than working head-on. Well before Harmony Samuels the producer was a young boy who loved music and harboured a burning desire to be an artist, “Originally, in my teenage years, before I decided to be a full producer, I was working on my album. I sing and rap and as a young guy I wanted to be up on stage with Usher, Chris, Michael, and Bobby Brown, those were my favourite artists. When I got more into production, I realised I was good at teaching people how to be better and that was the insight where it was like, you know what, I’m good at what I do, but I think I’m better if I show people how to do it. So I became an artist developer/music producer.”
Despite being raised in London, Harmony Samuels is fully integrated into his Nigerian roots and wears it proudly. Walking down memory lane to 2013 when the air, particularly in Nigeria, smelt of wonder as to why the popstar Beyoncé was singing the Nigerian Gospel song, when Jesus say yes, nobody can say no, Harmony Samuels wielded the collaboration between Michelle Williams, Kelly Rowland and Beyoncé in recreating the classic as a co-writer and producer, retaining the peculiar upbeat tempo of the song. This beautiful collaboration also happened at a time when Afrobeats was yet to be on the global stage as it is right now, making Harmony Samuels an early pioneer in spreading the wings of modern Afrobeats. Janet Jackson’s 2018 hit, “Made For Me” with Daddy Yankee was another of Harmony’s antics at infusing his roots on a global scale. This time, with a sprinkle of Highlife.
Impressively, his production career has championed an expansive repertoire including production credits on Tiwa Savage’s “Kele Kele”, Rotimi’s “In My Bed”, Ariana Grande’s “ The Way”, Jennifer Lopez’s “Let It Be Me”, and Fantasia’s “Without me” featuring Kelly Rowland and Missy Elliot which earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Song in 2013.
Harmony Samuels’ long and sacrificial career which started as early as 19 has spanned two decades and he has begun a fresh journey to appease the teenager who loved singing as much as production while finding a base in Afrobeats as the signature of his person and artistic expression under the recording name, H Money. “After 15-20 years of putting hits on the Billboard, I’ve pretty much worked with everybody I want to work with. Now, I want to go back to that young 19-year-old and to the focus point of being an artist, give myself that chance now that I have experience.”
H Money introduces his sound with “TicTik” which is euphoniously accentuated by Reekando Bank’s vocals. On “TicTik” H Money pays homage to Nigeria and his birth state, Lagos. The universe pulls its weight alongside Reekado’s manager on breathing the collaboration to life. Speaking on this, he praises Reekado, “ I wanted my first single to come from the motherland, and I know Reekado is one of the main artists, one of the heartbeats of Nigeria. He’s had an amazing career. He’s very talented, and a superstar in his own right.”
Sharing exclusives with Album Talks, H Money reveals he has tons of projects in the works with the sole aim of fusing genres. First is his next single featuring Rotimi and Neyo dropping later this year. His upcoming EP, “Fro & B”. an acronym for Afro and R&B is scheduled for release in 2025. 2025 might also be the year we experience H Money at full momentum as he’s also working on an Afrobeats-Gospel album, “We are taking Maverick City, Michelle Williams, Tye Tribbet and putting them with some of the best gospel artists in Nigeria.” H Money further confirms, “A lot of big things are happening towards 2025.”
Harmony Samuels has toured a successful career and after all these years he remains dedicated to helping others find themselves. Motivated by the desire to impact and create opportunities, his production company BOE( Building Our Empire) Global is an agglomeration of different facets of the entertainment industry, “We have so many business ventures, we have our studio in Los Angeles, rtists signed to us, producers, writers, it’s an entertainment melting pot.” Major and GoGo Morrow are currently signed to BOE and Harmony shares a single in the works with Reekado Banks. Part of his mission is to expand the business to Nigeria, “We’re planning to set up headquarters in Nigeria to help develop and partner with some of the greatest in Nigeria to help industrialise and build the artists in the country.”
Unequivocally mastering the art of evolving, an ordained will with the universe, one that continues to prove itself, placing Afrobeats on the global market at a delicate time and staying true to his roots whether as Harmony Samuels the producer or H Money the recording artiste, a crystal clear fact is his quintessential relationship with music. We can trust Afrobeats to boom creatively in his hands. Harmony says in a final statement, “Music was put inside of me by God. My mum said from the day I was born, music was my form of communication. If I don’t do music, I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s in my blood.”
