Birth name Aurélien Tigalekou Origin Libreville, Gabon | Also known as TigaKing & TIGA. Genres Hip hop / rap, R&B | |
 | ||
Born October 15, 1990 (age 26) ( 1990-10-15 ) Occupation(s) Music Engineer, Recording Artist, Producer, Video Director, CEO & Manager. Instruments Keyboard, Maschine, FL Studio, etc. Associated acts Black Milk, Dr. Dre, Ludacris, Jadakiss, Marsha Ambrosius, Oddisee Similar Black Milk, Torae, Sha Stimuli, Khrysis, Skyzoo | ||
Aurélien Tigalekou (born October 15, 1990), also known by his professional monikers as Auréli1 a.k.a TIGA (TigaKing), is a Gabonese hip hop and R&B producer. Born in Maryland in the United States.
Contents
Early life
Aurélien Tigalekou was born in Maryland in the United States. He grew up in both the United States and in his parents' home country of Gabon in central Africa. As he grew older, he began producing R&B and hip hop under the name Auréli1 a.k.a TIGA.
2011: Music 4 the Mind
He later founded Music 4 Ya Mind as an independent record label and management company in 2008. Its first release was Auréli1 a.k.a TIGA's debut album Music 4 Ya Mind Volume 1 on June 11, 2011. The project was made in Libreville, Gabon while he was living there, and features both guest artists from Gabon and from the United States and Hip-Hop Legend Dany Dan from France.
About the title track "Music 4 the Mind," Hip Hop Speakeasy wrote that "TIGA feeds a soulful sample flip into this hard-hitting beat for D.C. native Doe Cigapom to drop 'Music 4 the Mind.' Detailing poverty, struggling in the inner city and other graphic content, Doe Cigapom does what he does best and paints a picture for us and dishes out the truth through verses."
2012: First music videos
The debut music video from the album was for the track "La Planète Est Ma Case," released in July 2012 and produced by Auréli1 a.k.a TIGA. Featuring Nhexus, the video was produced by the Music 4 Ya Mind label and was directed by Fabe Do. Also in 2012, an official music video was released for "Téko & Nhex," a song produced by Auréli1 a.k.a TIGA for Maytook & Nhexus, for their album Téko & Nhex. The video was directed by Cédric Aboghe.
A VEVO video for the track "Jewelz Pt. III" by Napoleon Da Legend, produced by Auréli1 a.k.a TIGA for Napoleon Da Legend's album Awakening, was released in late 2012. The video was directed for EVG Studio by Edson Florez.
2013-present
In April 2013, Auréli1 a.k.a TIGA released a music video for the "Music 4 the Mind" track from his debut, with the video featuring rapper Doe Cigapom of Washington DC. The lyrics by Doe Cigapom have a social focus, and the video is directed by Jon Powell. KevinNottingham.com called the video "the perfect accompaniment for this underground hip-hop style track."
Recently he produced the song "Movie Album" by Skyzoo and Torae. It was included on their May 2014 album Barrel Brothers, released on EMPIRE Recordings.