Yusuf Oluwo Gbolaga professionally known as YKB (born 6 March 1998) is a Nigerian Afropop singer and songwriter.[1][2] He debuted his first single titled “Swaggu” in 2019 and gained popularity with the hit single “San Siro”.[3]
Early life
Yusuf Oluwo was born on 6 March 1998 in Lagos, Nigeria where he spent most of his childhood and early adulthood.[4]
Music career
YKB discovered his passion for music while he was growing up,[5] and In 2010, he started uploading his music on SoundCloud. He was first professionally called YusufKanbai until he later shortened it to YKB.[6][7]
Officially, he started his musical career in 2019 with his first debut single “Swaggu”.[8] With the release of his first single, he gained popularity and was shortlisted for Mr Eazi's accelerator programme, “Empawa Africa”, joining 29 other musicians from across Africa in 2020.[9] That same year, he released a new project titled “Hear Me Out”. Few weeks after, he featured on four of twelve songs released on the “Ejoya Class Of 20 project".[10][11]
In January 2021, he released another single “Dey Your Dey”, featuring Nigerian artiste, Zlatan. In April 2021, he was also featured in Laycon’s song “Fall For Me”.[12] In August 2021, he headlined his first solo-show in Lagos. In September 2021, he released his debut EP titled “Before I Blow” comprising 6 tracks.[13]
In September 2022, he released another single “San Siro”.[14] In May 2023, he released his second EP titled “Yusuful Music” comprising 5 tracks including “pressure”, “traffic” and “komplete riddim”.[15]