By Ms Mavy · Afroplug Founder · International Women’s Day

Who Are the Black Women Music Producers Behind the Sound You Love?

They produced the records. They arranged the sessions. They directed the sound in the studio — and for too long, they didn’t get the credit.

This International Women’s Month, Afroplug is dedicating the entire month to Black women music producers. From the legends who changed the industry to the new generation rewriting the rules — this is their story.

The State of Women in Music Production

Only 2.6% of music producers are women. Less than 5% of Grammy nominations in production categories go to women.

Yet the most iconic records of the last 30 years have Black women’s fingerprints all over them. The problem was never talent. It was visibility. And that is exactly what we are changing.

Black Women Music Producers You Need to Know

Missy Elliott — The Blueprint

Born July 1, 1971 · Portsmouth, Virginia

Missy Elliott co-wrote for Aaliyah and Jodeci before she ever stepped to the mic. At 25 she launched Gold Mind Records under Elektra — full creative control. She built the rhythm, the arrangement, the sonic direction of Get Ur Freak On alongside Timbaland. She records alone. No one in the room. Just her and her vision. “It’s never just a record for me. I can make a hot record in my sleep. But visually I have to see what I’m going to do with it.”

5 Grammy Awards. First female rapper inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Alicia Keys — The Architect

Born January 25, 1981 · New York City

Alicia Keys left Columbia University after 4 weeks to produce in the studio full time. She produced or co-produced 11 of the 15 tracks on The Diary of Alicia Keys. She built The Oven Studios in New York — designed by the same architect as Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios. She created her own plugin with Native Instruments — sampled from her personal grand piano. A producer, architect, and businesswoman long before anyone called her that.

15 Grammys. Over 40 million albums sold.

Solange — The Visionary

Born June 24, 1986 · Houston, Texas

Solange launched Saint Records in 2013. Co-directed every video. Sculpted every layer of A Seat at the Table — the silences, the pacing, the textures. Nothing was an accident. Everything was a decision. She and Beyoncé became the first sisters in history to both have US number-one albums in the same calendar year.

Number 1 Billboard 200. Grammy for Best R&B Performance — Cranes in the Sky.

WondaGurl — The Prodigy

Born December 28, 1996 · Scarborough, Toronto

WondaGurl started making beats at 9 on a Casio keyboard her grandmother gifted her. Discovered FL Studio at 11. Taught herself everything from YouTube tutorials — “I don’t like having a teacher. I’d rather watch YouTube.” At 15 she won the Toronto Battle of the Beatmakers against 30 established producers. At 16 — production credit on Jay-Z’s Magna Carta Holy Grail. At that age, most producers are still figuring out their DAW. She was already on a number one album.

Credits: Rihanna, Drake, Kanye West, Travis Scott, Pop Smoke. Juno Award for Producer of the Year 2021 — first woman ever to win as a producer for other artists. In October 2025, she released her debut album Metal Tail.

PinkPantheress — The Game Changer

Born 2001 · Kent, England

PinkPantheress started producing on GarageBand at 17 in a college dorm room. No label. No mentor. No budget. She built her entire sound alone — UK garage, drum and bass, bedroom pop, Y2K textures blended into something nobody had heard before. Over a billion streams. This year she won Producer of the Year at the 2026 Brit Awards — the first woman ever in 49 years of the award existing. At 24 years old.

If that doesn’t tell you everything about what’s possible — nothing will.

Tems — The Voice and The Vision

Born June 11, 1999 · Lagos, Nigeria

Tems recorded Try Me in her bedroom during COVID lockdowns — no label, no budget, just the song. It went viral overnight across Nigeria and the diaspora. She went from bedroom to headlining Glastonbury — the first African woman ever to do so. Grammy for Best Melodic Rap Performance. Executive produced her debut album Born in the Wild entirely herself. Every sound, every decision, hers.

First African woman to win a Grammy in her category.

NOVA WAV — The Duo Rewriting the Rules

Chi Coney & Blu June Andrews

NOVA WAV met online and formed their duo in 2011. On Beyoncé’s Renaissance in 2022 — they co-wrote and co-produced 8 of the 16 tracks including Cuff It, one of the biggest songs of the year. Credits: Rihanna, Jay-Z, Ariana Grande, Kehlani, H.E.R., Jazmine Sullivan, DJ Khaled.

Grammy for Best R&B Song — Cuff It. Two women. Behind some of the biggest records on the planet. Now you know their names.

Tinashe — The Independent Force

Born February 6, 1993 · Lexington, Kentucky

After her girl group disbanded in 2011, Tinashe went home and taught herself to produce using YouTube tutorials. DAW: Logic Pro. Two acclaimed self-produced mixtapes in 2012. Executive produced Aquarius in 2014. Then she left her label. And never stopped. Songs for You. 333. BB/Ang3l. Quantum Baby — featuring the viral hit Nasty. Fully independent. Still producing. Still owning every decision.

Chloe Bailey — The Producer Behind the Artist

Born July 1, 1998 · Atlanta, Georgia

Most people know Chloe Bailey as a singer. But she has been producing since she was a teenager. Sole producer on Baby Girl and Tipsy. Co-produced the majority of Ungodly Hour. Piano. Guitar. Sampler. She is not recording someone else’s vision — she is building her own.

Have Mercy — platinum. In Pieces. Trouble in Paradise. All her sound. All her production.

[EMBED VIDEO] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs1QSaUIMFc (Chloe — Have Mercy, Official Video)

Laila! — The Future

Born 2006 · Brooklyn, New York · Daughter of Mos Def

Laila! started producing on GarageBand at 14. In 2023, she released Like That — written and produced entirely by herself. Debut album Gap Year! in 2024 — 17 tracks, all written and produced by Laila! At 18. On GarageBand. By herself. Tyler, The Creator became a fan. Solange became a fan. The industry took notice. She is 18. She is just getting started.

Uncle Waffles — The Phenomenon

Born March 30, 2000 · Eswatini

Uncle Waffles learned to DJ during COVID lockdowns — eight hours a day, every day. October 2021 she filled in last minute at Zone 6 in Soweto. The video went viral overnight. Drake shared it to 100 million followers. Two years later — Coachella. Beyoncé sampled Tanzania on the Renaissance World Tour.

Billboard: Princess of Amapiano. First Amapiano artist ever at Coachella.

DBN Gogo — The Pioneer

Born May 28, 1993 · Durban, South Africa

DBN Gogo launched Zikode Records with Universal Music Group in 2022. First South African to join Spotify’s Global Equal programme. Headlined Coachella 2022. First female Amapiano DJ at Tomorrowland 2024. She was building when Amapiano was still local — and she helped make it global.

TRAKGIRL — The Builder

Southern Virginia / New York

TRAKGIRL started making beats at 14 on a red Gateway computer and an Akai MPD16. DAW: Logic Pro. Official Producer Pack on Apple GarageBand — her sounds shipped on every iPhone and Mac in the world. Credits: Jhené Aiko, A$AP Rocky, Luke James. Founded The 7% Series — named after the stat that women represent only 7% of music producers. Created PAY US TODAY advocating for fair pay for creatives. Not just a producer. A builder.

Kitty Ca$h — The Tastemaker

Born January 8, 1989 · Flatbush, Brooklyn

Kitty Ca$h DJed for Rihanna, A$AP Rocky, Solange, and Marina Abramovic. Played the Guggenheim, the Whitney, MoMA PS1 — stages most DJs will never see. Her Love the Free mixtape series championed SZA, Willow Smith, Kelela, and Sampha before any of them had major label deals. She heard them first. She platformed them first. Joined LVRN — home of Summer Walker and 6LACK — as a producer.

DJ Uniiqu3 — The Voice of Newark

Newark, New Jersey

DJ Uniiqu3 is one of the most important figures in Jersey Club music — the high-energy, fast-tempo genre born in Newark that influenced producers worldwide. She has been DJing since she was a teenager, building her sound in the clubs and streets of New Jersey long before the genre got mainstream recognition.

She used her platform to push Jersey Club onto global stages — performing across Europe, headlining festivals, and bringing her city’s sound to audiences who had never heard anything like it. She runs her own events, mentors young women in production and DJing, and has been a consistent voice for independent artists.

Not just a DJ. A culture carrier.

Why Representation in Music Production Matters

As a Black female music producer myself — I built Afroplug because the tools, the samples, the courses weren’t made for us. Over 200,000 creators worldwide use Afroplug today. And more and more of them are women.

Try Afroplug now : here

Black women music producers are still one of the most underrepresented voices in the music production industry. The talent has always been there. What’s changing today is access — and visibility.

If you are a woman reading this and you want to start producing — WondaGurl had FL Studio. PinkPantheress had GarageBand. Tinashe had Logic Pro and YouTube. Laila! had her bedroom. You already have everything you need to start.

Share this with every woman producer you know. 🖤

Say Their Names

Ms Mavy (Afroplug Founder) · Missy Elliott · Alicia Keys · Solange · WondaGurl · PinkPantheress · NOVA WAV · Tinashe · Chloe Bailey · Uncle Waffles · Laila! · Tems · DBN Gogo · Trakgirl · Kitty Ca$h

— and every Black woman music producer we haven’t named yet.

This one is for you. Keep going. 🖤

— Ms Mavy, Founder of Afroplug