Formed 2014

Kokoroko formed in London in 2014 when trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey and percussionist Onome Edgeworth met on an arts trip to Kenya. Their founding impulse was to connect young people of the African diaspora with the Afrobeat and highlife traditions of Fela Kuti, Tony Allen and Ebo Taylor, and they built the band from musicians many of whom came through the Trinity Laban Conservatory and the music education foundation Tomorrow's Warriors. The group's name comes from the Urhobo language of southern Nigeria, meaning "be strong" or "hard to break." Their breakthrough came in 2018 when Gilles Peterson placed "Abusey Junction" as the closing track on Brownswood's "We Out Here" compilation; the track accumulated tens of millions of streams and won Track of the Year at Peterson's Worldwide Awards in 2019. The self-titled debut EP followed on Brownswood in 2019. "Could We Be More" (Brownswood, 2022), their debut full-length, drew together Afrobeat rhythms with funk, gospel and Caribbean sounds. "Tuff Times Never Last" (Brownswood, 2025), produced by Miles Clinton James, deepened the R&B and neo-soul direction while retaining the highlife rhythmic core, exploring togetherness, community and resilience across eleven tracks featuring guest vocalists Azekel and Demae, among others.