Shakka

Born to Dominican parents and brought up in London, England, left-field pop artist Shakka—a singer, songwriter, and producer—first encountered music in childhood thanks to his father’s role in a reggae ensemble. After training at London’s Centre for Young Musicians, he issued his debut EP, Foolishness, Vol. 1, in July 2009, a pop-rap-reggae hybrid he wryly dismissed as “the early babbling stages of a haphazard singer/songwriter.” March 2011 brought the conceptual mixtape The Shakka Crown Affair. He next assembled his sung-and-beatboxed covers—among them Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin’ Bout You” and a medley of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” with Usher’s “Climax”—into the November 2012 release The Shakkapellas. Early the following year he joined Wretch 32 on the U.K. Top Ten hit “Blackout.” The EPs Tribe and The Lost Boys appeared in 2013 and 2015, respectively, while Basement Jaxx’s “Rock This Road,” featuring Shakka, surfaced in the interim.