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Emmanuel Jal

Rapper, singer, actor, activist, and public speaker Emmanuel Jal overcame grave dangers and adversity growing up to become a world-renowned talent. He escaped life as a Sudanese child soldier and began making music in the early 2000s, cultivating a specific brand of hip-hop that reflected his political and spiritual beliefs. Over the years Jal would collaborate with stars such as Nelly Furtado, Peter Gabriel, and RUN D.M.C.'s Darryl McDaniels, bringing messages of peace and enlightenment to albums like 2008's War Child and 2014's The Key. He also contributed to his sister Nyaruach's Juno Award-nominated 2018 album Naath. Jal was born in South Sudan around 1980. His mother died when he was still a young child of seven or so, and Jal was forced into a military training camp in Ethiopia, where he was trained to be a child soldier and participated in military battles before he was even a teenager. Eventually he left Ethiopia and made the dangerous, grueling journey across Sudan to Waat, which was near his Upper Nile home. From there he was smuggled by his mentor and protector Emma McCune into Nairobi, Kenya. Following McCune's death, Jal became one of the millions displaced by Sudan's violent civil war. McCune's friends and associates saw to it that Jal received an education, and he was able to attend Tala Academy. He began singing around 1998, was soon active in his local church choir, and began working on the earliest forms of his public musical output. In 2005 he independently released his debut album, Gua, the title track of which was a number one hit in Kenya. Jal collaborated with Abdel Gadir Salim, a Sudanese musician, for the album Ceasefire, which was released later in 2005, and included a re-recording of "Gua." Since Jal was from the south of Sudan, and Salim was from the north, the collaboration of the two musicians symbolized the kind of unity many have hoped for in the Sudan conflict, and Ceasefire represented a plea for peace and sanity. Third album Warchild arrived in 2008, and that year also saw both a full-length documentary about Jal's tumultuous journey and an autobiographical book, all sharing the title Warchild. Fourth album See Me Mama arrived in 2012, and 2014's The Key featured a long list of highly accomplished collaborators, including Nelly Furtado, Nile Rogers, Das Racist, and even string arrangements from Peter Gabriel. In 2014 Jal also co-starred alongside Reese Witherspoon in the film The Good Lie, a drama set during the Second Sudanese Civil War, which Jal had firsthand experience with. By-then living in Toronto, Jal was working as a public speaker and political activist in addition to passionately pursuing his musical dreams. In 2018, he collaborated with his sister Nyaruach on Naath, an album that fused Afrobeat rhythms with pop production and was nominated for a Juno award. In 2021, he was appointed the African Union ambassador for peace.
© Steve Leggett & Fred Thomas /TiVo
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Discography

27 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

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