GNL Zamba
Ernest Tulye Nsimbi Lupiazitta Zamba is a Ugandan Rap Icon, Best known as GNL Zamba. With a career spanning over 10 years at the top of his game and a decade since his landmark debut album, 2009's Riddles of Life "KOYIKOYI" - One of African Music's biggest and best-loved Indigenous language Hip-hop albums; GNL Zamba has embarked on his exciting new chapter in his career with his latest projects 'THE SPEAR', 'NSIMBI 2' & 'INFINITY'.
GNL's eclectic style was Influenced by Afrocentric Icons like Eddy grant & Fela Kuti as well as International Rap-stars Nas, Jay-Z, Ice Cube, and International Poets like Gil Scot Heron and Mbuli who filled the airwaves in his hometown of Kawempe, Uganda.
Over 50 awards to his name in his native Uganda, Millions of album sales, Regional tours, and Concerts, GNL Zamba's sound is a Catchy blend of Lugaflow, Hip-hop, and Afrobeats. GNL has held sold-out stadium shows in Africa, the SXSW Festivals, as well as intimate venues like The Smithsonian Museum of African Art in Washington DC and the Fowler Museum at UCLA all with an impressive array of international names.
As Founder of the Baboon Forest Entertainment brand, GNL Zamba shares his artistic gifts beyond the stage by Creating global Platforms and opportunities to Empower local Communities. He is an advocate for the environment, a Filmmaker and Social entrepreneur whose language is unapologetically Universal egalitarian, hip-hop.
One of East Africa’s most influential hip-hop artists, GNL Zamba is credited with being a pioneer of hip-hop in Uganda. GNL Zamba raps in English and his indigenous Luganda dialect, fusing hip-hop beats with traditional African instrumentation, in what he has coined “Lugaflow.” He is the founder and C.E.O. of independent hip-hop record label, Baboon Forest Entertainment.
Celebrated as Uganda’s “ghetto storyteller,” GNL uses lyricism to both mirror and critique his society. His music directly addresses social justice, domestic violence, African pride, public health, sexuality, environmentalism and ethnicity; often through the narratives of relatable characters. His song Story ya Luka/Story of Luke, was selected by Uganda Ministry of Health to headline the 2010 AIDS awareness campaign for youth education in Uganda. A year later, his video collaboration with Young Empowered and Healthy (YEAH) Uganda for True Manhood, won the People’s Choice Digital Media Award at the 2011 International Entertainment Education Conference. In 2014, the Twaweza Initiative awarded GNL for the positive social impact of his song We Cry, which tackles street violence and safe sex. Since 2013, GNL has been actively partnered with Reach A Hand Foundation Uganda, in a series of ongoing youth edutainment campaigns. Recognized for both his artistry and activism, GNL has been invited into the academic sphere, lecturing on oral literature and ethnology at Makerere University, and hip hop history and entrepreneurship and at Kyambogo University.
The Spear November 2020Baboon Forest Entertainment ““The Ghetto Storyteller””
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