GAMBINO AKUBOY
GAMBIAN & BRITISH ARTIST
Music Videos
TEASER
What is this vibrating sound and catchy melody?
Yes it’s another Gambino Akuboy creation!
Gambino Akuboy is a true force in the booth, on stage and on camera. His music frees your mind and moves your feet.
No choice. No escape. No excuses.
A man that lived many lives; youth actor in The Gambia, soldier in the British Army, drama student, comedian, scriptwriter, filmmaker, songwriter and artist. An example par excellence of you can be whoever you want to be, an inspiration to all of us.
Gambino Akuboy is pushing to the top with his own sound, placed somewhere between Afrobeats and Afro House. His Aku Sound is combining African rhythms with a fun energetic Dance vibe; not to forget the Afro Fusion influences from his home of choice: The UK.
Dance, be free, be yourself, accept all the things that led you here to this moment. Let it go. Press replay.
DEBUT ALBUM "JUMP" 25 FEB 2022
"JUMP" ENERGISING & YET MINDFUL
“Jump” is the energising and yet mindful debut album of Gambino Akuboy. With “Jump” the UK based Singer and Songwriter is exploring the edges of Afrobeats, combining African rhythms with a fun energetic Dance vibe and Afro Swing elements. On this masterpiece Gambino Akuboy is featuring the Afrobeats legend Mugeez from R2Bees, as well as Deejay Limbo, Rhianna Georgia, SVGA, Uncle Bimz and Yun Kilz.
DISCOGRAPHIE
The romantic Afrobeats song “London Girl”, with a clear Afro-Bashment influence, is Gambino Akuboy’s 5th and final pre-release for his debut album “Jump”, coming out on 25 Feb 2022. The melodic hook makes you want to cuddle up with your loved one and never let them go again. The beat dominated by a piano, combined with a heartful flute, sets a softer tone for “London Girl”, while still not falling short on those drum-elements, we love Afrobeats for.
As he gears up to drop his debut Album in February next year, Gambino Akuboy unleashes “Murder On The Dancefloor” the bass heavy Afrobeats/ Afro House song which is convincing with an African drumline combined with catchy and yet almost hypnotizing vocals. “Murder On The Dancefoor” is with no doubt the track that will make you dance and forget anything around you.
“Doctor’s Advice”, the third release of Gambino Akuboy’s debut album “Jump”, is an upbeat Afrobeat track featuring Ghana’s top duo R2Bees lead singer Mugeez, who has worked with the likes of Ed Shereen and Fuse ODG.
The joyful Afrobeats track “Doctor’s Advice” is about how one can get hypnotized when falling in love, to the point where everything becomes blurred. Through a bass heavy beat and fetching vocals “Doctor’s Advice” has this “make-you-feel-good” mood, one can’t resist.
“Walk Away” is the first single release from Gambino Akuboy’s Debut Album “Jump” coming out in February 2022. The intense Afro Swing song tells a story about bulletproof love. For “Walk Away” Gambino Akuboy teamed up with the London Grime rapper Uncle Bimz and the amazing singer SVGA from North London.
“Table” by Gambino Akuboy and Rhianna Georgia is about the struggles of one’s inner self against life's obstacles. The song is about how our dark side can deter us from living up to our responsibilities. Elaborating on the pressures coming from society, our families and partners, as well as ourselves, and how they can be too overwhelming to bear.
We were just vibeing in my kitchen whiles I was cooking some Jollof rice and out of a sudden we had created Compadres, which tells a story of how no one will help you until you make it. But also how from one minute to the next, things can turn around, as long as you know who your compadres are.
I create music to inspire and to make people happy. Especially “Hold It” was created in a happy place. I was on holiday in Ghana connecting with my artist friends there, enjoying the amazing ghanian food and meeting the lovely ghanian people. It was an amazing time and even in the studio we were all partying, while “Hold It” was created.
“I recorded “Weekend” in 2016, but never knew how to release it, since I switched to another style. But my TikTok community grew quite rapidly after I started to post my funny videos, which inspired me to drop something for them.
Also the Corona crisis had hit us and I simply wanted to cheer up people with this crazy song. We all know laughter is the best way to defeat fear. My fiance shot a funny freestyle video with only me in it in our backyard for TikTok and YouTube.”
“As you might know I used to be in the British Army and always wanted to make a song about my time there. Despite what you might think I sometimes really miss the brotherhood and how we just all stood together no matter what.
I created this song to celebrate this empowering feeling of togetherness and helps us all to find our own soldier inside of us.”
When everything stopped, the party stopped. But what if your job is tied to the party? Two weeks ago, I was in a dark place with uncertainty. As an artist I felt the depth of loosing out on shows and bookings. I reached out to my producer and constantly complained: “It messes me up”.
He smiled and said: “Akuboy if you feel so strongly about it, then say it on the mic!” Just like that it was recorded, that same night ft. Uncle Bimz (London rapper). One thing is for certain it's off my chest. Whatever it was. I hope it will be off your chest too when you listen to it.
“I got contacted by a music PR guy from the USA, he said he loved my music and wanted to work with me on a release with one of his producers: Afro D. I also took my producer Major Notes on board and altogether we created “Ready to go”.”
“The video for “Party Alien” was shot in the London art gallery “Westbank Gallery”, which we tried to secure for months. It was an amazing day with a fantastic team. We are all very proud of the production.”
“This one came to me while I was cooking. I love cooking and sometimes I just play beats and vibe to them.”
“My cousin Uncle Bims and Yun Kilz came for a weekend to Notts. We were chilling at the yard and before we knew it we were hyping to “No Man No Cry” and had already most of the verses.”
“I had this beat for a while, but totally forgot about it. Then one day on the way to the studio it started playing in the car. And there it was, the hook was straight there and I recorded the whole song the same day.”
“This is a funny story about how mistakes can turn into good things. The song was actually accidentally submitted to BBC introducing. We uploaded a track to BBC, a bit of a funny trap song and just wanted to see what they say. When we heard they picked the song we were over the moon and of course listened to the show. The introduction came but to our surprise the song we called “Robin Hood Song” was playing. Realising the wrong file was uploaded we could not stop laughing.”
“While working on the song my fiance suggested to ask ENC to jump on it. She had heard his music and thought his dancehall-vibe would be a great fit.”
“The video was shot in London. The first location was the rooftop of the H10 London Waterloo hotel right in the centre. The manager liked our song so much he volunteered to stage the bar man in the background. Can you spot him?”
“I was in the studio in London and recorded another song. The beat for “Wish You Well” just arrived and I created the song together with my producer Major Notes during the sessions.”
“On the way to the studio the car started to smoke. MLK and I freaked and quickly jumped out of the car.”
“This song was recorded in Ghana with my boys from ATL. I surprised my fiance/ manager Marie with it on my return to the UK.”
“Literally lying on the floor in a studio in Kenya while my producer Kay.S Beats finished the beat off we started to vibe to the song. We got so excited that we directly asked Sati if she wanted to jump on it and luckily she was free. We recorded the whole song the same day.”
BIOGRAPHY
Gambino Akuboy was born in The Gambia, where he started his career as an actor and won several awards, as well as being aired on national TV during his youth. To everyone’s surprise he joined the British army, after passing his first year of multimedia studies in London.
In the summer of 2013 he was posted to Kenya, where he discovered his musical talent together with the Kenyan rapper Chieftain. In 2015 he left the army and started to record his first songs in London, Accra and Nairobi. He signed up to ATL crew from Ghana and became Gambia’s first Afrobeats artist.
At the start of 2016, Gambino Akuboy released the song “Dancefloor”, which is a collaboration with Gambian rapper ST. The video was produced by David Nicol-Sey and won the Best Video at the Gambian Wah Sa Halat Music Awards. In December 2016, Gambino Akuboy released the Afrobeats song “Wish You Well” with a video shot by Enos Olik in Kenya; The first music video to reference Maasai culture.
During 2017 several songs dropped, like “Chameleon” an Afrobeats song featuring Sati (Kenyan Singer), the Dancehall banger “What A Bum Bum” featuring MLK (Gambian Rapper) or “Tsunami”. Oktober 2017 the song “Worry Them”, a collaboration with the London rappers Yun Kilz and Uncle Bimz, was released with an amazing video shot in London and is still gaining great attention on YouTube and Spotify. The video was also published on GRM daily.
2018 Gambino Akuboy released several singles. The Dancehall song “Kolo”, featuring Gambia’s most famous Dancehall artist ENC, which was aired on BBC Introducing and 6 Music. “African Baby”, a beautiful and positive Afrobeats song produced with Kisean, a Gambian rapper and Uncle Bimz banging on Spotify. The Ding Dong Song - NG10 is Calling a Afro Bashment tune about making the most of your life and an homage to his hometown Nottingham, which also was aired on BBC Introducing.
The single “No Man No Cry” features Uncle Bimz and Yun Kilz and is inspired by the struggles men are facing in everyday life. The beat was produced by Killmatic, one of R2Bees beatmakers. The song was also selected by BBC Introducing and moreover aired several times on Pulse88 and AfroVibes Radio.
“Shining Star” was Gambino Akuboy’s first single release in 2019, a hypnotising Afro Swing song as well aired on BBC Introducing. The party anthem “Party Alien” was released on May 2019 and trended on Spotify's “Weekly Discovery” Playlist for several weeks. “Party Alien” is a Afro Dance track, with a hypnotic and drum heavy afrobeat-meets-dance riff. The video, a cinematic masterpiece, is available on Gambino Akuboy’s VEVO channel. Following came “Ready to Go” featuring the producer Major Notes from London and Afro D from the US.
With his first single release in 2020 Gambino Akuboy went all the way back to his time in the British Army. The “British Army Song” is celebrating this empowering feeling of togetherness and helps us all to find our own soldier inside of us. In the middle of lockdown Gambino Akuboy released “Weekend”, exploring his fun side to cheer us all up in these trying times. Weekend digs deeply into using laughter to defeat fear. Together with Uncle Bimz Gambino Akuboy also released a song called “Corona” talking about how Corona messed us all up, which was aired on BBC. At the end of 2020 “Hold It”, an homage to a crazy holiday in Ghana came out, with a vibrant dance video shot in his motherland The Gambia.
For his debut album “Jump”, Gambino Akuboy has signed a distribution deal with ditto Africa, who have already distributed his last single “Compadres”. The first singles for "Jump" are being released in 2021 and the album is coming out on 25. Feb 2022.