Tobechukwu Dubem "Tobe" Nwigwe (born March 8, 1987) is an American rapper, singer and actor. As of 2022, Nwigwe co-stars in the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

television series '' Mo'' and received a nomination for

Best New Artist The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967. The official guidelines are as ...

at the 65th Grammy Awards.

Personal life

Nwigwe is from the

Alief Alief is a working-class suburb in Southwest Harris County, Texas, Harris County, Texas, United States. Most of Alief is within the city limits of Houston, while a portion of the community is in Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated ...

neighborhood of

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

in the U.S. state of

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. He is of Nigerian descent, and hails from the Igbo ethnic group. He was raised

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, but later began attending

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churches. He played high school football and then college football at the

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School, ...

. He was being considered for draft by the NFL. However, a Lisfranc ligament tear left him unable to continue to play football. He then founded the nonprofit TeamGINI, a name derived from “Gini Bu Nkpa Gi?” which translates to “What’s your purpose?” in the

Igbo language Igbo ( , ; Igbo: ''Ásụ̀sụ́ Ìgbò'' ) is the principal native language cluster of the Igbo people, a meta-ethnicity from Southeastern Nigeria. The number of Igboid languages depends on how one classifies a language versus a dialect, so ...

. TeamGINI aims to help families in need by giving them gifts that aid them in gaining financial literacy and independence. After encouragement from the motivational speaker Eric Thomas, Nwigwe began focusing on music in earnest. He is married to Martica "Fat" Nwigwe and they have three children.

Music career

Since August 2016, he has posted an original song and video every Sunday across social media. He began to gain a following through his Instagram and YouTube posts and videos. Nwigwe collaborates with his wife, Fat (born Martica Ivory Rogers), and friend and producer/rapper LaNell "Nell" Grant, also known as The Originals. The three came together while working with Nwigwe's nonprofit TeamGINI. Nwigwe appeared on the BET Hip Hop Awards 2018 Cypher. He is a featured artist on

PJ Morton P.J. Morton (born Paul Morton Jr.; March 29, 1981) is an American Grammy winning musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Since 2012, he has been one of the keyboardists, alongside Jesse Carmichael, for the pop rock band Maroon 5. Mor ...

's album ''

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'', released on August 9, 2019 by Morton Records and Empire Records. In 2019, Nwigwe and The Originals performed on NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series with a backing band. His music has garnered a lot of attention, including Michelle Obama, who put his song "I'm Dope" on her workout playlist. In 2020, Nwigwe went viral on digital platforms for his song "I Need You To (Breonna Taylor)". He said God gave him a vision to do the song as a public service announcement. He performed his songs "Try Jesus" and "Eat" at the 2020 BET Hip Hop Awards. "Try Jesus" reached No. 4 on the ''Billboard'' R&B Digital Song Sales chart. Nwigwe has collaborated with many other artists, including television host Anthony "Spice" Adams,

Paul Wall Paul Michael Slayton (born March 11, 1981), better known by his stage name Paul Wall, is an American rapper and DJ. He has spent much of his career affiliated with Swishahouse Records, and has released several albums under the label and collabor ...

, Chamillionaire,

Duckwrth Jared Lee (born May 13, 1989), better known by his stage name Duckwrth (pronounced "duckworth" and stylized in all caps), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and artist. Early life Jared Lee was born in South Central Los Angeles on M ...

Big K.R.I.T. Justin Lewis Scott (born August 26, 1986), better known by his stage name Big K.R.I.T. (a backronym for King Remembered in Time), is an American rapper and record producer. Born in Meridian, Mississippi, he started his musical career in 2005. Af ...

D Smoke Daniel Anthony Farris (born October 17, 1985), known professionally as D Smoke, is an American rapper and songwriter from Inglewood, California. He gained attention after winning the first season of the Netflix music competition show ''Rhythm + ...

Black Thought Tariq Luqmaan Trotter (born October 3, 1973), better known as Black Thought, is an American rapper, actor and the lead MC of the Philadelphia-based hip hop group the Roots, which he co-founded with drummer Questlove (Ahmir Thompson). Regarded a ...

, Royce Da 5'9"
Penny & Sparrow
and more. Nwigwe's ''The Pandemic Project'' was released in 2020.

Discography

*''Tobe From The Swat'' mp3 album (ETA Records, 2017) *''The Originals'' (LP, Self-released, 2018) *''More Originals'' (LP, Tobe Nwigwe LLC, 2018) *''Three Originals'' (LP, Tobe Nwigwe LLC, 2019) *''Fouriginals (LP, Tobe Nwigwe LLC, 2019) *''Tobe From The Swat / The Live Experience'' (Double LP, Tobe Nwigwe LLC, 2019) *''Cincoriginals'' (LP, 2020) *''The Pandemic Project'' (EP, 2020) *''At the Crib Arrangements'' (EP, 2021) *''The Monumental Live Recording'' (2022) *''moMINTs'' (LP, 2022)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nwigwe, Tobe American rappers 1987 births Living people