Sikiru Adepoju, Grammy Award winner and Nigerian from Eruwa, Oyo State. The song was included in Tupac’s album (The Rose That Grew From Concrete) on track 2.
Sikiru Adepoju won the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Music Album for his contribution to Mickey Hart’s Global Drum Project’s title album at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.
Sikiru Adepoju, born November 10, 1950 (age 73), is a Nigerian drummer and recording artist who performs primarily in the traditional African music and world music genres. He plays different instruments and styles.
Adepoju, the master of the talking drum, comes from a family of musicians in Eruwa in western Nigeria. He and his brothers Saminu and Lasisi learned to play drums at a young age under the tutelage of their father, Chief Ayanleke Adepoju, whose name Ayan means “came from the drummers”. While still a teenager, Sikiru toured with the Inter-Reformers Band, the group of one of the pioneers of Afro-beat, Nigerian juju artist Commander-in-Chief Ebenezer Obey, and recorded several albums.
In 1985, Adepoju came to America to work with O.J. to appear.Ekemodes Nigerian All-Stars and three months later he met Babatunde Olatunji. He joined Olatunji’s band Drums of Passion and met Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart through Olatunji. Since then, he has often played drums for parts of Hart’s Grateful Dead and Bill Kreutzmann’s Rhythm Devils concerts, and in 2001 played talking drums for Mickey Hart’s touring band Bembe Orisha.
Since they met, he has been involved in and co-written most of Mickey Hart’s projects, including the albums (and related tours) Mickey Hart’s Mystery Box, At the Edge, and Supralingua Grammy winning albums “Planet Drum” and “Global Drum”. Mickey Hart albums. Project. Sikiru is a member of the Mickey Hart Band, recorded on their CD Mysterium Tremendum, and sings the song “Who Stole the Show?”“..
Adepoju’s current project is titled “Riddim Doctors”. The cast includes Sikiru Adepoju, Giovanni Hidalgo, Zakir Hussain, Ian “Inx” Herman, Femi Otunde, Peter Fujii and Sola Babatola. and Douglas “Val” Serrant.