“khaiba.” is a Nigerian-American music artist hailing from Northern Virginia who has been amusingly regarded as: “one of the greatest artists you’ve definitely never heard of”.

While in college, he studied neuroscience and eventually went on to become the student commencement speaker the year he graduated. Already dabbling in poetry earlier in his undergraduate career, he ended up falling in love with rap, sampling and remixing popular and classic records to post on Soundcloud in between his studies. He became an artist by accident after his extra credit project in molecular cell biology class went viral during his penultimate semester in college. His “Professor Drake” parody-mashup of “One Dance” and “Back to Back” has racked up more than 11,000 views across Facebook alone. In 2018, he capped off his senior year by uploading songs right from his bedroom, only to release an 8-track EP on Soundcloud mere months after graduating. The lead single “Liquor”, a bouncy, upbeat rap song written from the perspective of an unorthodox conversation with himself, exploded overnight when it first released, garnering nearly 1,000 views in its first 48 hours. Since 2018, he has taken the stage for a number of open mic performances and professional gigs. In 2019, he performed a medley of his Soundcloud era tracks at the ASTRAL Fashion Show in front of over 700 people. To his very core, his ambition is only ever superseded by a desire to self-improve in hopes it is reflected in his craft with every new project release.

He has spent the past few years exploring music as something more than a creative outlet and pastime, cultivating a soundscape that feels authentically true to himself and extends beyond the boundaries of traditional genre delineation. In 2021, after nearly scrapping it altogether, khaiba. went on to release his debut multi-platform EP, “the interludes.”, a diary-styled deconstruction of the sobering realities of unrequited love and the consequences of emotional internalization. After an unexpectedly positive reception to this radically different, yet refreshingly honest style, khaiba. went on to release two videos for the project and has written countless other songs since then. The project, which has now amassed more than 12,000 streams on Spotify, is replete with deep cuts such as “voicemails” (one of his most beloved works, revolving words left unsaid to a former flame), “two hearts” (an enthralling, one-sided conversational rap song about giving your heart to someone who never returns it), and “10,000 hours” (a hard-hitting critique of toxic masculinity).

khaiba. is well-known for disguising layered meanings within his songs, beyond what the words appear to convey on the first listen. Even still, he continues to remain very fond of the notion of vulnerability, finding it to be what can truly make a record shine and transform it into something compelling and refreshing, no matter the style or genre. He makes that simple truth a core principle in his writing process and tends to draw from real-life experiences in an effort to use music as a medium to resonate with others. This resonance with people from different walks of life is something he believes is crucial to becoming a great artist.

He has collaborated with a number of artists and has begun to write for others as well in an effort to challenge himself to think “outside of the box” creatively and expose himself to new sounds. In 2023, he released “CINDEREL(LA)”, a spin on the classic “Maria Maria”, reminiscent of the musical stylings presented in “Wild Thoughts” by DJ Khaled, Rihanna, and Bryson Tiller. Most notably, he has worked with Ebby Marango – an immensely talented Billboard-charting songwriter signed to Electric Feel Entertainment, who recently wrote on and tracked the demo for “Angel Numbers / Ten Toes” by Chris Brown. The pair currently have one song together: “confessions” from his debut multi-platform EP.

In 2024, upon meeting UK R&B sensation Mahalia for the second time at a show, khaiba. played her a remix to one of her records and was met with exuberant praise for his vocal chops, as she was blown away by his recording and was thoroughly impressed by his wordplay and vocal mixing.

He has continued to share more of himself with the world in the last year, increasingly stepping out of his comfort zone with every new release. After playing through the video game “Hogwarts Legacy”, khaiba. went on to make a song about it on a whim that began to circulate on Instagram, with its numerous double entendres and clever lines becoming an instant hit among much of the “Harry Potter” fandom. He continues to make content centered around popular media, putting his own unique twist on popular songs, like with his remix to “Calling” from the film “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse”.

Currently, among other things, he is gearing up to release new music and has been striving to promote cultural enrichment programming in his community aimed at empowering the youth to express themselves creatively through different artistic mediums.