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From Underrated to Conqueror – Jizzle’s Rise to an African Sensation

For outsiders, his rise to fame came as a shock however not to those who knew him from the inside and saw the early warning signs.

Jizzle is that undercurrent that has surfaced armed with one thing -to dominate the big league.

Domestically he is a headline-maker and was feted king of the music scene this year after playing second fiddle for some years.

Named Jerreh Jallow, his transformation into one of big fishes of the Gambian industry actually began some time in 2017,six years after he had started.

Pundits akin with his musical journey are synonymous with the genre type he began with – rapping in English, a thing he was still courting attention for but certainly not as he did today when he swapped to fusion.

Talk of solid prominence, that teed off for him in 2015 when he collaborated with Artenola to release a song titled man of the Year. Video of that master piece done by Stylezz Record, was shot by vibrant Sheikh Tijan Seck – a dominant force in music video production.

The Gambia Music Awards committee, Gambia News understands, are contemplating retiring their music video producer of the year category owing to Sheikh’s non-stop exploits.

The man of the year banger would get an AFRIMMA nomination as Jizzle traveled out of the country for the first time to witness what was a momentous event.

Emboldened by this newfound self-belief, Jerreh refused to rest on his laurels making a huge shift in his music to adoption of hip-hop/afro-beat with very relatable punch lines as a genre.

Photo: Jizzle picked four awards including the artiste of the year prize

Aware of his growing popularity, he surrounded himself or rather began taking a cautious approach towards what events to get involved in, completed by a solid PR team most of whom are entertainment journalists.

Today, he is no longer that bloke who visited radios or studios pleading to be featured.

Rising Without Controversy

In years gone by, shows involving Gambian artistes rarely get hundred spectators as the public took a laid back approach, preferring songs cooked elsewhere, to be exact Senegal and Nigeria.

However, that trend took a shift – a defining one -with Jizzle one of the motives for this.
Impressive about his ascension is his non-involvement in beefs then perceived as springboard to assured fame.
He has had few derides thrown at him obviously by detractors in the form of diss tracks in efforts to provoke a reaction. But resolute on building his reputation, he did not fall for the bait and placed his eyes on the prize.

Photo: Jizzle is one of few artiste to own a house and a car in the Gambia

This earned him respect despite his age in the industry. Step-by-step, he walked his way to stardom beginning with his nomination for the AFRIMMA Awards. By this recognition, most at his age, would have developed a peacock-head and allow this get to them. Jizzle appears not the one to be contended way too early, and with a non-Gambian type of music genre but loved by natives and beyond, work, work and work he did without slowing down.
Last year, he gave ST hint of what to expect by bagging a total five silverware during the previous music awards before picking the prize this year.

However, his performances and eventual approval voting by judges stemmed from his input the last twelve months including his first album launch concert , dropping beat after beat after beat from the turn of 2019 January right to December with an accumulated over two million views on all his songs.

Photo: Jizzle cruises around with his new ride

Recently, he has been featured by the BBC and other notable media outlets but how he responds in retaining the artiste of the year gong with pressure from ST will be defining moment.

On a positive note, Jallow is looking forward to making collabos with a couple of African music sensations preferably Burna Boy and his category of wave-makers in the African music league.

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Editor

Gambia News is a credible site owned by a Gambian-born with an interest to tell the Gambian narrative as it's.

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