“If ‘Gangsta’ never happened, I think I would have been content with a nine to five. I woke up one day and my life had changed,” Darkoo says to me in a tranquil Victoria Island apartment in Lagos, Nigeria. She’s sporting minimal jewellery, comfortable loungewear, and her signature golden dreadlocks. “I went to Wizkid’s show at the O2 in 2019, and I remember one person coming up to me and saying, ‘That ‘Gangsta’ song, you gotta drop it’. So I called my little cousin, and we shot a video. I put it on Twitter, and it went crazy.”

‘Gangsta’ featuring One Acen became the launchpad of Darkoo’s career, propelling the then 18-year-old toward her first record deal. Real name Olufisayo Isa, the artist was raised between Lagos and South London and began releasing music at the age of 15. She became hometown-famous while managing a cashier job at an African restaurant. “I had gotten admission to study engineering, but as soon as ‘Gangsta’ blew up, I was in the clubs, and life hit me for real like a grownup. Now I’m 21 but I feel like I’m 30. With the type of responsibilities I have, I can’t be a 21-year-old!”

The afro-swing single, which peaked at number 22 on the UK charts, garnered a remix from Davido, Tion Wayne, and SL and set the stage for her 2021 debut EP, ‘2-in-1’. “There are two feelings as an artist. That beginning time when you’re being recognised as that person and that moment when you are about to take over the whole thing.” Darkoo asserts. That second moment arrived in 2022 with the single, ‘Always’, which sealed acclaim across Africa. The drill-influenced track featuring Ghanaian voice of the street, Black Sherif. Is a heart-wrenching story displaying Darkoo’s adroit versatility. And since then, she’s continued to stay true to Africa through collaborations with the likes of BNXN, Mayorkun, Camidoh and Ayra Starr.

“I am a very open-minded artist. I am going to wake up every morning loving what I do. And I tell myself, ‘Yo, go back to your roots’,” she says. “I don’t think a lot of labels realised early enough that afrobeats is what is next. In 2019, before afrobeats was on this level, I was always asking the labels, ‘Are you going to take me back to Africa?’ Because a lot of the stigma that comes with being a UK artist is that you don’t grow past the UK or Europe, if you are lucky.”

With her single ‘Shayo’ featuring Tione Wayne just landed, which takes us from sipping sipping Hennessy to Sunday service, Darkoo promises that plenty of new material is on its way. “I'm trying to get an EP out, then the debut album is coming for real. I am looking forward to dropping my project. It gets tiring when you are sitting on bangers. I don’t care what it does. I just want to drop music that I love, that I want to do, and that my parents can be proud of.”

Darkoo’s allure rests in her ability to maintain a sense of duality and variety, from fashionably alternating her personal style with no regard for gender norms, to navigating different genres with true grace. This tenet has shaped the core of her career so far, and she hopes her legacy is remembered in a similar vein. “The fact that I love to change my look, you wouldn’t expect Nigerians to straight away accept it. So, I want to keep being known for pushing the boundaries of what is cool and acceptable.”