We were lucky to catch up with Antonio Woods Jr recently and have shared our conversation below.
Antonio , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
I’d learned all of what I know in music by two individuals which is my best friend Marquez “Soulaykami” Alexander & Randy “R.E.T. On The Beat” Thomas. They both taught me the skills needed in my field as they are music producers as well despite the fact that I have outside sources as well but as far as the learning process goes, I wish I’d learned the business early so I don’t have to stumble a lot but that takes the whole point of my journey.
In music production, you’ll need to know music theory and how to work your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) of your choice along with knowing how to direct the artist in the studio. As a content creator, you’ll need to know how to read analytics, how to title your videos, how to make thumbnails, etc.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Well I’m Antonio Woods Jr. but I’m professionally known as Akitak Uzu (Ah-kee-tack, You-zoo) and I’m a music producer & content creator from Memphis, TN who specializes in music production. I got into the industry seriously around 2011 when I started uploading beats online to a beat selling website called myFlashStore (now called Airbit) due to my grandfather’s suggestion.
The services I provide is custom production for the clients projects whether it be an album or for other forms of media. I also license my beats as well on a website called Traktrain. I try to help the client with anything they need to know about the business whether is signing up for a Perfomance Rights Organization or learning how to distribute your music independently.
My most proud achievement is the production I done on the Scary Movie mixtape by DJ Jay Woods & Cuxthroat (Cuthroat) because it reached 28k plays after 24 hours as well as reaching 50k two weeks later. I produced “ZaZa Land” & “Harder Than Ever” with Billboard-Charting Producer JB Sauced Up. It was a pleasure to be on the project along with joining a production crew called “901 Beat Cartel” as a new member.
I want to let everyone know that I’m passionate about what I do, hard-working, and want my client to achieve their goals because in the end of it all, if good music is being made then I call it an success.
Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?
Well my view is that in theory is good but there’s so much stuff that makes it confusing to me in my opinion.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I remember back in March of 2012, my first laptop hard drive died on me which left me without no PC to work with for two months. I had to use different computers at the college I was attending at the time in order to keep going until I got a new one.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.traktrain.com/akitakuzu
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/akitakuzu
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AkitakUzu
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/akitakuzu
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/akitakuzu