Oluwafisayo Isa (born 18 September 2001), known by her stage name Darkoo, is a

British-Nigerian British Nigerians (here meaning British people of Nigerian descent rather than Nigerians of British descent) have formed long-established communities in London, Liverpool and other industrial cities. Many Nigerians and their British-born descend ...

rapper and singer. She came to prominence following the release of her single "Gangsta", featuring One Acen, which peaked at number 22 on the Official Singles Chart, and peaked at number one, on the UK Afrobeats Chart of 2020. In 2022, Darkoo was nominated for the Best Diaspora Afrobeats Artist of the year at The Headies Awards and was announced by Pandora Music Italy as one of the most streamed musicians with other artistes and record company,

Marco Mengoni Marco Mengoni (; born 25 December 1988) is an Italian singer-songwriter who rose to fame in 2009, after winning the third season of Italian talent show ''X Factor (Italian TV series), X Factor''. Since then he has sold over 2.8 million reco ...

, Keymaker Records, Federica Carta, and

Baby K Stephanie Keene (October 13, 1992 – April 5, 1995), better known by the pseudonym Baby K, was an anencephalic baby who became the center of a major American court case and a debate among bioethicists. History Prenatal assessment Stephanie Ke ...

the following year.

Early life

Darkoo was born in Lagos, Nigeria, moving to the UK at the age of 7. and being raised in South London. She attended St Catherine's Catholic School for Girls. She also attended Christ the King: Emmanuel Sixth Form.

Career

Darkoo began releasing music at the age of 15, starting out as a drill rapper before beginning to incorporate singing into her music. In late 2019 she released the single "Gangsta", featuring British rapper One Acen. The song came to prominence on

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

and entered the Official Singles Chart at number 34 in November 2019, eventually reaching a peak of 22 in January 2020. She followed up this success in March 2020 with the single "Juicy" featuring Hardy Caprio, which peaked at 62 on the Official Singles Chart. At the 2020

MOBO Awards The MOBO Awards (Music of Black Origin, also known as the MOBOs) are an annual British music award presentation honouring achievements in " music of black origin", including hip hop, grime, UK Drill, R&B, soul, reggae, jazz, gospel, and Ba ...

, Darkoo was nominated for Best Female Act and Best Newcomer, whilst "Gangsta" was nominated for Song of the Year. In April 2021, Darkoo featured on a remix of "

Body Body may refer to: In science * Physical body, an object in physics that represents a large amount, has mass or takes up space * Body (biology), the physical material of an organism * Body plan, the physical features shared by a group of anim ...

", originally performed by

Russ Millions Shylo Batchelor Ashby Milwood (born 20 March 1996), known professionally as Russ Millions (formerly Russ, Russ Splash or RussMB), is an English rapper and performing artist. In December 2018 he released his single "Gun Lean" on Virgin Records. ...

and

Tion Wayne Dennis Junior Odunwo (born 1 September 1993), known professionally as Tion Wayne, is a British rapper and DJ from Edmonton, North London. He appeared on three top-10 singles on UK Singles Chart as a guest – NSG's " Options", "Keisha & Becky ...

. The remix helped the song reach number 1 in the Official Singles Chart. Darkoo released her debut EP, ''2 In 1'', in July 2021, featuring artists such as Tion Wayne and

Unknown T Daniel Richie Lena (born 17 August 1999), known professionally as Unknown T, is a British-Ugandan rapper. His post release album ''Rise Above Hate'' (2020) was a major hit on the UK music scene, with the album reaching the top of the charts in i ...

. On 1 September 2023, following the launch of

Virgin Music Virgin Music, known as Virgin Music Label & Artist Services until 2022 and originally as Caroline Distribution, was a music distributor of independent artists and record labels, most prominently Death Grips, Weezer, and Radiohead. Virgin Music ...

flagship in Nigeria, Virgin Music Nigeria, Kimani Moore announced the unit with be incharge of Darkoo and Reekado Banks distributions.

Discography

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

References

{{reflist 2001 births Living people 21st-century Black British women singers 21st-century British women singers Black British women rappers British women rappers Rappers from London Nigerian emigrants to the United Kingdom Rappers from Lagos British hip-hop musicians Nigerian Afrobeats musicians