robertoluoch oluoch
May 3, 2019
Jojo Abot is an artist of Ghanaian descent who was born on the 4th of August 1988 in Ho – Volta Region in Ghana but resides in Brooklyn, New York in the United States. She is a diverse individual since she is not limited to being a singer, she is also a performer, video director, photographer, actress, and model. She, therefore, directs her own videos. Her style of music has a rare sound which is preferably referred to as Afro-Hyno-Sonic sound (Phendu,2017). This is a combination of a variety of genres including Reggae, Afrobeat, Afrosoul, Afropunk, Jazz, Hip Hop plus folk and native sounds. Another source of inspiration to her music is her origin and family since she does her music mostly in her mother language, Ewe (Jennifer,2014). Moreover, her debut album Fyfya Woto, released in 2016, was named after her grandmother (Gunseli,2016). Fyfya Woto means news birth and is about the topic of identity. She also mentioned that music sensations such as Fela Kuti and Ebo Taylor are a great inspiration to her music as well.
She incorporates subject matters such as black empowerment, spirituality, personal history, and identity. She has gone for musical tours and performed with big names in the music industry such as Common, Stephen Marley, Lauryn Hill and Seun Kuti in classical scenes such as Kennedy Center, Apollo Theatre, Kings Theatre, Museum of Modern Art and Times Square when welcoming a new year where more than a million people were in attendance. She has dropped albums which are Fyfya Woto on the 4th of June 2015 and Ngwiwunkulunkulu on the 12th of July 2017. The latter is about identity as well and was released in response to the unending result of apartheid in Johannesburg South Africa.
Fyfya Woto consists of songs such as “Lom Vava”, “To Li”, “Pi Lo Lo” and “Le Le Le”. Ngwinkulunkulu, on the other hand, consists of singles such as “Gods among Men”, “Fuck your Laws”, “Divine Feminine” and “Marching” (Kat,2017). She dropped another hit dubbed “Alime” (meaning waist) in 2018 where she featured artists Elo and Vuyo. This was shot in South Africa’s Soweto, Katlehong and Braamfotein, the music video and choreography being her idea. She has worked under Fyfya Woto and Jojo Abot music labels. She was listed among 300 artists from all over the globe for the SXSW Music Festival. Abot took part in the acting of a movie dubbed Kaku Ananse. Apart from music, she revealed that she enjoys working with fellow female photographers around the world and she mentioned the likes of Sarah Waiswa, Amaal Said, Delphine Diallo, and Hannah Saleh.
She was also named as one of the 100 most influential women by OkayAfrica. Apart from South Africa, Abot has been to yet another African country, Kenya for what was termed as the East African Soul Train. During her visit to Kenya, she performed at the Blankets and Wines and The Alchemist. She became interested in working with Kenyan artists such as Blinky Bill, Muthoni Drama Queen, Mayonde and Cosmic Hommies.
