Blaqbonez

Emeka was born on 29 January 1996, to an Igbo family, and grew up exposed to the Yoruba and Urhobo culture in Nigeria. Blaqbonez hails from Imo state, a state in south-eastern Nigeria dominated by the Igbo tribe. He grew up with his mother, a pastor, in a Yoruba and Urhobo mixed environment. He had his tertiary education at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), where he studied Computer Engineering.

He was 13 years old when he discovered he could rap, and his journey into music was a result of happenstance. He self-discovered his talent while listening to the radio with his cousin, when the song of a 12-year-old rapper was played. His cousin liked the song and challenged Blaqbonez to come up with his own lyrics, since he liked criticizing rappers. A few minutes later, he had enough bars for a verse, and that was where it all began.[3] His parents were not in support of his newfound hobby, so he secretly pursued his passion. While in school, he dropped his first project, Hip-Hop in Blaq, and participated in competitions.[4] In 2011, Blaqbonez started participating in underground rap battles. He eventually won Terry Tha Rapman's Zombie Competition aged in 2012, beating 3000 rappers in the challenge.[5] In the same year, he featured on Terry's 2012 mixtape titled “World Domination” alongside top Nigerian musicians including Olamide, Vector, Mode 9, and Spellz. Five years later, Blaqbonez featured Terry on one of his projects.[6] He emerged first runner-up in Vector's King Kong competition, won the Rhythm fm Freestyle Fury and became RhythmFm's artiste of the month, became the Hennessy Vs class captain, part of the Soundcity blast cypher, also released his much talked about mixtape CTAT "Cssette Tapes and Tvs" grossing over 60,000 engagements in streams and downloads, which is his third mixtape, following "hip-hop in blaq" and the "unfinished EP".[7]

In an interview with The Punch newspaper, he said his "Best Rapper in Africa" proclamation was a response to a diss track and need to wake up other rappers in Nigeria.[8] He was recently described by The Guardian as 'carrying the torch of Nigerian rap'[3] and on 2 January 2019, he was listed by the same publication as one of the "Top 10 Artists to watch in 2019".[7] Blaqbonez was named West African Rapper Of The Year at the inaugural Creative-Africa Hip Hop Awards. The same publication ranked him second in their Top 50 African Rappers Of 2021 list.

• Paperman (29 January 2022). "2021 Creative-Africa Hip Hop Awards Nominees And Winners | Creative-HipHop". www.creative-hiphop.com. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
• Paperman (26 December 2021). "Top 50 African Rappers Of 2021 | Creative-HipHop". www.creative-hiphop.com. Retrieved 28 March 2022.