Steve Happi
Co-Founder
Jail Time Records
About Steve Happi
Steve Happi, also known as Vidou H, is an activist, music producer, sound engineer, and filmmaker whose life and work are deeply rooted in music. His career began at 16 as a DJ, later expanding into beat-making while pursuing a B.A. in Casablanca, Morocco, where he continued touring with his sets. In 2013, he returned to Cameroon and committed himself fully to music production.
In 2018, Happi was arrested alongside his brothers due to a family dispute and spent nearly two years incarcerated in Douala’s central prison before being acquitted of all charges. During his incarceration, he co-founded Jail Time Records, a record label and recording studio inside the prison dedicated to producing the music of incarcerated individuals. As the studio’s lead producer, he has recorded and produced hundreds of songs, culminating in the release of the label’s first double album, Jail Time Vol. 1, in 2022.
Happi’s work has been featured in The Guardian, Vogue Italia, BBC Radio, Vice Italia, Crack Magazine, Carhartt WIP Magazine, i-D, and Huck Magazine. In 2024, his story became the subject of a short documentary produced by Pan African Music, highlighting his role in transforming music into a tool for dignity, rehabilitation, and creative freedom.
Events with Steve Happi
Roundtable: Building Bridges to a Better Future
When young people grow up facing adversity, whether through economic deprivation, violence, displacement, or multigenerational trauma, feelings of hopelessness, disengagement, and hostility can become internalized responses to their outward circumstances....
SIMM Panel: Music in Prisons and Detention Centres
How can music programs in prisons and detention centres contribute to rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates into society? In places of incarceration where human dignity and sense of self is...