Zimboo

He left DBush, on the border of South and Central Africa, for America and then to England to make a name for himself in dancehall.

With a deep African accent and armed with catchy, rhythm-riding lyrics and the ability to rock a crowd, Prince Abakunamabooba Zimboo landed in the land of wood and water.

Known as the dream chaser to some, Zimboo may be a bit behind time with his type of music, nonetheless, he is in full pursuit of his dreams of becoming a recognised dancehall act.

"I came here to pursue my dreams. I left Africa and I travelled until I ended up in England, where a friend of mine, 'Bad Breed', encouraged me to come to Jamaica where he had several links in the dancehall industry," Zimboo said.

His sound is a mixture of hip hop and dancehall and he smoothly deliver his tracks, which he says have been gaining momentum overseas.

Zimboo was featured prominently on the MSN home page for four consecutive days recently, which led to him being pursued by several media houses wanting to hear his story.

"I travel all over the world and whenever I perform the crowd gets loud, of this I am really proud," he told The Sunday Gleaner.

Having been in the island for more than five years the artiste, who completes his sentences with 'yu zimmi', has been honing his skills in clubs and at private functions, and said he is pleased with how his career is going at the moment.

"I am very grateful for the exposure and the way my career has been going. My songs have been receiving rotation on several radio stations overseas and I am beginning to feel the love of the people. I really can't complain," he said.

He added: "I have a couple singles to be released in the near future, one is titled To The Rescue, for which I will be doing two versions, one for Jamaica and one for the European market, and Love."

Though not popular in Jamaica, posted on youtube.com is footage of him performing to good responses around the island.

style of music

Having worked with recognised names such as Bobby Chin from Black Chiney, who produced the single Come Over by Sean Paul and Estelle, and the likes of Thomas 'Diplo' Wesley, who produced the hit single Paper Planes by M.I.A., Zimboo said that he is confident Jamaica and the world at large will eventually gravitate to his style of music.

"I have no doubts in my mind that the people will take on to me and appreciate my music," he told The Sunday Gleaner.

Outside of his musical career, Zimboo claims he is searching for his one-thousandth wife.

"In Africa, I have 500 wives and across the rest of the world there is another 499. One more and I hit the thousand mark, and that is part of my reason for coming here (Jamaica)," Zimboo said.