Timbuktu

by Evan C. Gutierrez
Timbuktu has earned a reputation as Sweden's most influential political hip-hop and rap crossover artist, called by some "the rapper even your grandma knows." Born January 11, 1975, Jason Michael Robinson Diakite's African-American father and Swedish mother spent time living in both Sweden and Chile. His multi-ethnic and multinational upbringing exposed him to a wide variety of musical styles and influences. He began rapping in the early '90s, quickly becoming a fixture in the Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Malmö live hip-hop scenes. Writing lyrics in Scanian and English, Timbuktu teamed up with a Danish rapper in the mid-'90s to form the multilingual duo Excel. The pair released one album, entitled Bright Lights Big City, before disbanding. Timbuktu's solo career was initiated by the release of T2: Kontrakultur in 2000. Refusing to water down his lyrics for commercial success like so many of his American counterparts, Timbuktu rapidly earned a reputation as a voice of political dissent and challenge. His confrontational lyrics and inclusion of musical influences like folk, blues, reggae, and West African styles made the music both difficult to categorize and wildly popular. An unrelenting chart presence and regular performance schedule over the course of several years made Timbuktu Norway and Sweden's most notable urban voice. By the 2007 release of Oberoendeframkallande, Timbuktu had racked up four original album releases backed by his own Juju Records.