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WHO IS SHE?

EmmoLei Sankofa is an American composer, producer, musician, and artist whose work spans music, visual media, and fine art. EmmoLei’s original music can be heard on Hulu's The Other Black Girl, Three Ways, Project CC on Disney+, Lizzo’s Emmy-Award winning series Watch Out For the Big Grrrls, Season 3 of Step Up on STARZ, AMC/Shudder's horror anthology film Horror Noire, and so much more.  A 2021 Sundance Composers Lab Fellow, EmmoLei worked closely with Film and Television composers on her craft. The creative advisors for the intensive included Kathryn Bostic, Laura Karpman, Blake Neely, Heather McIntosh, George S. Clinton, Mychael Danna, Jeff Rona, and Christopher Willis. EmmoLei has also collaborated with some of the best emerging and award-winning filmmakers, including Jamal Dedeaux, Zandashé Brown, Rhea Dillion, Jonathan Lewis, Imani Dennison, Sekani Solomon, Ajiri Akpolo, and more. Her original music has been married to films screened at HBO, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Lionsgate, Warner Bros, the Oakland Museum of California, and film festivals in Miami, Martha’s Vineyard, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Savannah, Las Vegas, London, and beyond. EmmoLei has also worked with top brands like Nike, Vans, Buzzfeed, Pandora, Kamala Harris for the People, Pulse Films, and more via her creative audio company, Bèl Son.

 

EmmoLei’s discography encompasses over twenty-one independently released albums, EPs, and singles collectively and embodies a mixture of genres but often integrates soul, jazz, classical, and rhythm and blues. Her single, Don’t Fight, was included on Adult Swim’s OPUS compilation album. As a musician, she has performed with Nelly, Ella Mai, Kurt Schneider, and more and had her debut performance as a solo act on Mobley’s “Devil in a Daydream” Virtual Tour. An alum of The Recording Academy’s 2021 NEXT program, EmmoLei is an emerging talent and active voice among the next generation of music industry leaders. EmmoLei and her work have been featured on various platforms, including Lyrical Lemonade, LANDR, Saint Heron, OC Weekly, The Recording Academy, Gender Amplified, Billboard, and more.

ARTIST STATEMENT

The past is great, but the present is greater. Ask someone else what I have done. Ask me what I am doing. Most of my work involves honoring and learning from the past to create the sound of the future. I am a blend of that old familiar tune, the beauty of every moment that is now, and a mark of the questionable things to come. I am the past, present, and future.

I am connecting dots through sound in time.

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