Janka Nabay

Sierra Leone-born Janka Nabay is a major presence of the 500-year-old bubu genre, with a style that incorporates a high-speed 4/4 rhythm along with sampled congas and Nabay's analog keyboard melodies. Nabay spent decades writing bubu songs, but never released any of them outside of Sierra Leone. That's all changed since New York label True Panther signed a series of Nabay's tracks. Nabay now plays throughout the US and across the world, and made his debut at Austin's SXSW Festival in 2011.