Rémi Kabaka is a polymath in the truest sense of the word, and one long before it was de rigeur.
He has been a mysterious mainstay on London’s cultural scene for over two decades, touching numerous projects across art, fashion and music, breathing life into the underground and informing the mainstream, while rebelling against it.
He is Gorillaz’ producer, steering the spaceship from behind the scenes, manning the multimedia monster that was way ahead of its time, also responsible for A&Ring, art direction and clothing.
Photo: Olivia Rose
This all-hands-on-deck approach isn’t just confined to his work with Gorillaz, but is his way of life, his creative practice. Greek Street’s Outsiders Gallery? Curated by Remi Kabaka. Africa Express? Organised by Remi Kabaka. The drummer for Bobby Womack’s Bravest Band? Remi Kabaka.
“Remi is a creative shapeshifter, almost shamanic, allowing him to travel across space and time effortlessly. You will definitely have heard him, you may not have seen him.”
Jefferson Hack, co-founder of Dazed & Confused.
As the son of the legendary Nigerian percussionist of the same name, music is in his blood, but Kabaka has taken his heritage and pushed it into the future. A fascination with artificial intelligence and new technologies has informed his groundbreaking work with Gorillaz Sound System, that he founded, and for whom he is also the voice of the virtual drummer Russel Hobbs.
Kabaka is a charming, larger than life raconteur, but one that prefers to operate in the shadows, unfussed by stardom and captivated by culture, a creative force whose work you might be looking at on a billboard or someone’s hoodie while you sit next to him on the tube. Kabaka has been dropping fashion collections at the same time as he hosts art exhibitions for years, but in an era when it’s widely expected that artists innovate across creative disciplines, his approach has never felt more modern.