Ricqy Ultra

Who is Ricqy Ultra?

Ricqy Ultra was born 26th October in the early 80’s. He is the first born in a family of 5. Born at Gama Tudu, Brigade Quarters, Nassarawa L.G.A of Kano State, he hails from Wamba L.G.A of Nasarawa State. Ricqy Ultra attended his primary education at Chino Nursery & Primary School before proceeding to Government college, Jengre for his Junior Secondary School Certificate. He gained admission into Government Science School Kuru and completed his Senior Secondary School at Government college, Jengre.

During his educational pursuit, Ricqy Ultra was more of a dancer. The crave for rapping came around the mid 90’s when rappers like Nas, Tupac Shakur, Naughty by Nature, Notorious BIG, Big Pun and other rappers at that era influenced him to venture into rapping. He grew up in his early days listening to songs from late Micheal Jackson, Jimmy Cliff, Billy Ocean, Barry White, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Bob Marley, Temptation, Dynasty, Shalamar, Commodores, Lionel Richie and so many old school singers. He never seems to miss the program Soul Train back then. By the late 90’s Ricqy Ultra finally realized that he has a spot to claim in the music scene.

While in high school, Ricqy Ultra always mimed rappers like Nas, Will Smith, Bone Thugs and Harmony, Tupac and R&B singers like R.Kelly, Brandy, celine Dion, Mariah carey and as he grew older, he had a soft spot for singers like Usher, Joe, 112, Jagged Edge and so many A-List artists.

After graduating from high school, Ricqy Ultra started writing his own song at the age of 16. By 17, he wrote over 50 songs (both hip-hop and blues). Unfortunately, he never had the opportunity of recording his first song. This dawned on him and led to the formation of a group called 2-EX-1 which comprised of Ricqy Ultra, King B (Bashir Suleiman) and Big Bull (Lawal Musa). They recorded their first single as at then titled ‘I wanna dance’ by 2000. The group had a short spell and everyone dispersed within the first year of its formation.

By 2001, Ricqy Ultra went solo and kept on writing more songs (irrespective of whether he was hitting the studio or not) and worked on his singing skills. He wanted to be a top R&B singer. Ricqy Ultra gained admission into Bayero University Kano and that was when he met Terry 2 Oxide (Thomas Musa) and Eddy Cool (Edmond Adejo Ugbabe) and formed the group Q LIMIT (which was coined as a result of the block they were representing, Q Block). They had the opportunity of sharing the same stage with P-Square and Plantashion Boys in 2002.

In the same year, Ricqy Ultra recorded his first single with Jameek (James Ikama) which he titled “Play to the gallery” which was produced by Lt. John at Apolos Studio. That marked the beginning of a new era for the artist. The song became an acceptable hit in most radio stations across Kano state debuting in the first top ten countdown hosted by Pyramid Radio’s MD Coker and Raypower FM’s DJ Sleek. RK2 FM contributed significantly to the popularity of the song by using the soundtrack as their sic-tune in some programs. Ricqy Ultra later hit the studio and recorded “Make Me Famous” and “Just Bounce”. The songs were all produced by Lt. John.

Ricqy Ultra in 2004 met with Nomiis Gee and they collaborated alongside Finger Gee to record the song “BUK TOWN” which went viral within most institutions and Kano as a whole. The song was well accepted and within the same year, the video was shot and directed by Bobby Hai. The song created a platform for Ricqy Ultra to perform alongside Nomiis Gee and share the same stage with artists like P-Square, Dbanj, Ruggedman, Styl-Plus and other notable names like Double Trouble and 2-Dropz.

By 2006, Ricqy Ultra went AWOL in the music scene to concentrate on his studies. After completion of his studies by 2008, Ricqy Ultra continued writing and recording more song without actually releasing them. Songs recorded at that period include “Make Me Famous”, “Mama’s Melody”, “We Gotta Go” which featured L-Crusher, “Play to the Gallery Remix” which featured Jameek, L-Crusher, Big Bull and Yakson (aka J-Twice), “Ina Son Ka” and “Are you coding”.

Most of these songs were not released and as such, Ricqy Ultra alongside Nomiis Gee, Finger G, Osheray 1 and in-house producer Lt. John formed the crew Stand Up Salute Entertainment which had the aim of uplifting its artist and creating a brand that will push the outfit to a respectable level. While the dream continued, financial instability and distance amongst its members led to the collapse of the crew after five years. Although, some level of achievements were recorded as Nomiis Gee became the most successful artist in the label. At that stage, Ricqy Ultra was away to Bauchi State for his National Youth Service Scheme. After completion in the year 2010, Ricqy Ultra stayed back to work as a Geography Tutor at Dolphin-Maria College, Bauchi.

While visiting Kano on a vacation, Ricqy Ultra realized that the hip-hop game was almost going extinct. Shows were scarce, the game had fewer artists representing it and nonetheless, there was little or no acceptance of the genre. This triggered Ricqy Ultra to search for his old chronicles, dust it up and revisit the studio. By 2012, Ricqy Ultra re-appeared in Nomiis Gee’s hit single “Basu Feelings” as a cameo appearance. Lately that same year, Ricqy Ultra appeared in the episode of Zangon Hausa Hip-hop (Hausa Hip-hop zone) which was a programme aired on Africa Magic (Hausa). By 2014, Ricqy Ultra shot the visuals to the song “Just Bounce”. The video was directed by Mr D’Mej. That marked the return of one of Kano City’s most illest emcee.

After the release of Just Bounce, Ricqy Ultra hit the studio to record new song and that led to the compilation and first release of the mixtape “Hate It or Love It”. After releasing digital hard copies of the project which sold over a thousand copies within three days, he finally resigned from his place of work and moved to Lagos State to seek for greener pastures. After meeting a lot of music enthusiasts, show promoters, learning the musical terrain in Lagos, Ricqy Ultra withdrew back the mixtape project and returned back to Kano State by 2015.

With the experience learnt from his brief exile to Lagos State, he created a unique platform for himself and started experimenting fully with the use of the Hausa Language in his lyrical abilities.

This was the rebirth of Ricqy Ultra in the music scene. Ricqy Ultra immediately had a collaboration with K-Arrowz in the song “Basu Da Dama” which had artists like Dabo Daprof and AB Kapon.

Other artists Ricqy Ultra worked with after his comeback include F&G, Nexcezz Beatz, TYG, Nomiis Gee, Dr Pure, Tagwayen Asali, Saeed Nagudu, Daddy Fresh Jamal and others too numerous to mention.

His progressive and aggressive work rate earned him his first award at the Arewa music and movie awards (AMMA) 2014 where he was awarded as the Most Promising Artist. With such an accolade after fourteen years, Ricqy Ultra finally gained a reward for his hard work.

By 2015, Ricqy Ultra was nominated for New Age Music Artist and Best Rap Performance at AMMA AWARDS Season 3. He won the award for AMMA NEW AGE ARTIST (VIEWER CHOICE CATEGORY).

In 2016, Ricqy Ultra was nominated for Best Rap Performance in AMMA AWARDS SEASON 4. He scooped an award in the category for AMMA ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME OF THE YEAR for the radio program POWER JAMS which he presented at RayPower 106.5FM Kano.

RICQY ULTRA is a workaholic. He is the founder and CEO of QRY INC INTERNATONAL who are the owners of the popular blog Hausa Hiphop. He is an ardent music presenter who has freelanced for Express Radio 93.1 and Raypower 106.5 FM Kano in the program Power Jams which later won the award for Most Entertaining Program on Radio/TV at AMMA Awards Season 4. Ricqy Ultra was a presenter for the popular program MUJALLAR KANNYWOOD on Youtube TV Channel Muradi TV.

By 2020, everything changed when he decided to drop an EP titled F.E.A.R which consisted of 6 songs withe features from Mhiz Beerah, KefaZz and Ibrahim Kast. The EP project was more or less an experimental project to usher in the arrival of an unplanned project.

By 1st July, 2020, he suprisingly released his first album project ever titled EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED on all streaming platforms such as iTunes, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, Tidal, Spotify and others. The album consisted of 25 songs with a duration of 1 hour 30 minutes. The project consist of production credits from credits from Simple Touch kefaZz, Lt. John, NexceZz Beatz and J Dot.

The album features 11 artists which include B.O.C, AB Kapon, Ill Em Boi, Jameek, Bmeri Aboki and KefaZz. Others are L Crusher, Big Bull, Dabo DaProf, JTwice and NexceZz.