ABOUT THIS WEEK’S PERFORMER

KUKU

www.kukulive.com

KUKU moved to the US from Nigeria in 1993. In 2002 he found Bar Nun, a weekly open mic in Washington, DC’s U Street. It was there that he picked up a guitar for the first time, taught himself to play and began building a following singing in the U Street music/poetry open mic scene. As his reputation grew, he rapidly worked his way into the club, schools and café scene releasing his 2005 EP, “Love Sessions,” and his first LP “Unexpected Pleasures” in 2006. He has labeled his minimalist acoustic guitar driven sound “The Afro-soul Acoustic Experience.” Dubbed “The African Music Medicine Man,” this Yoruba, DC-based troubadour has been touring extensively since the release of his debut. In October 2007, South African guitar maestro Mongezi Ntaka (former and original guitarist for the late Lucky Dube band) joined him as he launched “The Absence of Cool” at KUKU’s third Kennedy Center appearance. The album concept asks listeners to stop enslaving themselves to the concept of “cool,” – with cool being the absence of emotion – and instead join him on a musical journey to the raw emotions deep in their souls. Happily independent, KUKU enjoys the artistic freedom that most major labels often deprive, but his biggest challenge is still getting his music heard by millions of eclectic listeners across the world without a machine. What he lacks with the backing of a machine, he makes up for as a tireless worker with a good heart. And with the digital age in full-effect, his music is reaching far more places than he has yet to visit.

Comments are closed.