The first thing you notice when looking at Nigerian-born, Chicago-based artist Tobi Lou is his aesthetic. Shimmery star confetti dots the flawless brown skin on his cheekbones, and his blond-tipped Afro hair hovers in tiny buns above his pensive expression. His style is unmatched, and at first glance, you'd never guess he can spit a mean flow at the flick of the tongue. But, indeed, he can.
Tobi Lou's family moved from Nigeria to Chicago when he was 2 years old. For a while, his main focus in life was baseball. He played in an independent professional baseball league before sustaining an injury that suddenly put his dreams of being the next Jackie Robinson on hold. Luckily, Lou always had a thing for music. Growing up watching Kanye West and Missy Elliott sparked plenty of creativity, so by 2015, he began to take things seriously. But he didn’t fall into the lane of your favorite rappers.
“Genres definitely exist, but they aren’t for me,” Lou sighs over the phone. “I believe in them for other people, as they help distinguish a sound, but I don’t really have a set tone. I do what I want.” He bounces between playful raps and memorable, singsongy melodies, which places him squarely between singer and rapper. But don’t dare call him a singer. “Man, I’m not an R&B singer,” he chuckles. His first break-out single, “Game Ova,” featured melodic vocals over a low-fi beat, and the internet quickly put him in a box. In fact, he ended up on the bill of Miami’s Best Life R&B festival this past summer. “I used to feel
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