Rotimi

Olurotimi Akinosho, who performs under the name Rotimi, balances a career as a contemporary R&B singer with onscreen work that includes recurring parts in the Starz series Boss and Power. His profile rose sharply after the 2019 release of the single “In My Bed,” which featured Wale and reached number 16 on Billboard’s Mainstream R&B chart. Additional screen credits include the films Divergent, Acts of Violence, and Coming 2 America. His first full-length project, All or Nothing, arrived in 2021.

Rotimi entered the world in 1988 and spent his childhood in Maplewood, New Jersey, as the child of Nigerian immigrants. During his teenage years he starred on the varsity basketball squad and sang in the honors choir. He later enrolled at Northwestern University, completing a bachelor’s degree in Communication while also minoring in Business. A recurring role on Boss in 2011 marked his first significant television exposure. Subsequent film appearances in Black Nativity, Imperial Dreams, and Divergent preceded his casting as Dre in the second season of Power, the 50 Cent–produced Starz drama. Although he had already issued independent singles such as “Beautiful Music” and “Forever” along with several mixtapes, 50 Cent further advanced his recording career by signing him to a contract.

Under the G Unit imprint, Rotimi issued the 2015 single “Lotto” featuring 50 Cent and the six-track EP Royal Wednesday, a set that blended commercial R&B with harder-edged production. The 2016 track “Netflix and Chill” followed, and in 2017 he unveiled the eight-song collection Jeep Music, Vol. 1. The EP Walk with Me surfaced in 2019, registering modest placements on the Independent and Heatseekers charts. Later that year he delivered another EP, The Beauty of Becoming, which housed the gold-certified “In My Bed” featuring Wale.

Rotimi sustained his acting schedule with a role in the 2020 film True to the Game 2, for which he contributed the song “What’s the Cost.” That same year he released the acoustic set Unplugged Sessions. In 2021 he joined Eddie Murphy in the comedy Coming 2 America while also unveiling his debut album, All or Nothing, which included appearances by Yung Bleu, Fireboy DML, Alpha P, and additional collaborators.