K.O.G

DON'T TAKE MY SOUL - HEAVENLY SWEETNESS (September 2024)

Singer/showman/songwriter K.O.G. has, since moving to the UK in 2008 developed an extraordinary following in Britain and worldwide for his high voltage performances with The Zongo Brigade. As well as part of Damon Albarn’s Africa Express 2019 showcase, for example, where the Guardian singled him out for particular praise: “…. the riotous beats and irresistible delirium of ONIPA, whose rogue strain of griot hip-hop and charismatic front man K.O.G. (had) the entire marquee beaming.”

K.O.G. has performed in over 15 countries; from UK’s Glastonbury’s West Holts stage to Fusion (Germany), Sauti Za Busara (Zanzibar), Kabardock (Reunion) and the Commonwealth Games (Gold Cost, Australia), winning the 2018 Young Commonwealth Performer award.  Last November, K.O.G. featured in Tony Allen: A Retrospective at the London Southbank Centre, in a line-up curated by Damon Albarn, Ben Okri, Femi Koleoso and Remi Kabaka, alongside Nitin Sawney, Jimi Tenor, Seye Adelekan, among others.2 His music has featured on BBC2 with Jools Holland – the Nubiyan Twist track “If I know” – and included on a FIFA 2020 EA Sport game. 

In 2019, K.O.G. released Wahala, Wahala (the album title, Swahili for trouble, or problem, also on Heavenly Sweetness) with The Zongo Brigade. His new album Zone 6 Agege (released in April 2022) is a dramatic development: as much homage to the Accra-born artist’s musical roots, as an expansive engagement with music of the Black Atlantic, most notably hip-hop and dub/reggae.