J-Rio

Available for over a year

Why were young people in Libreville dancing to ntcham, a high-energy urban dance that was born in Gabon - while listening to Ghanaian and Nigerian soundtracks? It wasn’t right, thought J-Rio, a Gabonese musician who was one of the first Francophone artists TIA host DJ Edu the Afroboss played back in the day. J-Rio did something about it – and he tells This is Africa how, in 2014, he became the father of ntcham music, when he made the first Gabonese song to complement the dance craze. Sors Ça became a massive hit – and inspired other Gabonese musicians to make songs in this new genre of music. J-Rio also talks about how his phrase “Je suis Gaboma et c’est Mal Swag” became a rallying cry for Gabonese people at home and in the diaspora. And he opens about how he lost confidence in himself and found himself in a creative block for a few years. Plus DJ Edu plays his latest mix of the hottest tunes coming out of the African continent.