Black Thunder, Uprising Wandi Invented Gam-Jam Music

Black Thunder Gambian reggae dancehall artiste based in Swiss and his brother, Uprising Wandi, has invented a new music genre called Gam-Jam music.

The Gam-Jam music is a flavour of Gambian and Jamaican music, and was produced by Prince Makaye.

Dj Jimmysense, Black Thunder’s manager, describe him as a perfect artiste Gambians have to watch.

“He has a vision and he is representing The Gambia all over the world with his hit songs, including Eye Pon Me Girl’, ‘Too Late To Come Home’, ‘Money Make Them Funny’,” he said.

Jimmysense, a reggae dancehall Dj at Paradise FM, said they are making all efforts for Thunder to tour The Gambia again. He urged Gambians to expect hit tunes from him.

Dj Mutaburaka, also a disk jockey at Paradise FM, won the top ten count down at Paradise FM for five times.

He explained that the top ten countdown is a collection of different Gambian artistes, usually aired at Paradise FM every Friday, with fans voting for their favourite through text message.

“Due to the quality of his music, he was voted five times in a row. Black Thunder is a great artiste, as he has got good lyrics, and Gambian music fans respond positively to his music,” the veteran DJ said.

Born on 5 December 1987, in Njaba Kunda, The Gambia, Saikou Kanteh, popularly known as Black Thunder, is a songwriter, reggae and dancehall artiste based in Bern, Switzerland. His passion for music began when he was seven years old.

At that age, he had already started a band with his friends. He later decided to consider music as a career of choice. Shortly afterwards, he met a popular local producer called Papis, who brought him to studio. This saw him recording his maiden single called ‘Liberate From Action’ at TJ records in 2002.

In 2004, he relocated to Milan, Italy, to pursue music studies for two years. After completing his studies, he went into the studio to record more music and later founded a band. His musical journey began taking shape and saw him touring Europe with his band.

In 2009, he left Italy for Bern, Switzerland, where he launched a solo career and signed a contract with Likkle Lion Record in Geneva. While in Bern, he attended music school for 20 months, doing both theory and practicals and was regarded as one of Switzerland’s best 12 artistes. In 2014, he signed another contract with Atomic Dog Record in Bern.

In 2015, he toured The Gambia where he had eight concerts. All the proceeds were donated to schools, hospitals and youth development projects.

As of march 2016, he was working on his debut album to be released that same year. The album will feature some of the following songs: ‘Eye Pon Me Girl’, ‘Too Late To Come Home’, ‘Money Make Them Funny’, ‘Woman I Need you My World’, ‘Mama Don’t Worry’, ‘Visa Use’ and ‘One love’.