Chino Amobi, is an American musician, painter, director and graphic designer. Born to Nigerian parents, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama but raised in Virginia, Chino began making art and music at a young age, informed by his frequent trips back to Nigeria to see family. In highschool, he BEGAN experimentING with rap with his brother, who now performs as Chichi the Eternal.
As a UNIVERSITY undergrad, Chino began releasing internet music as Diamond Black Hearted Boy. His work has always been HUGELY cinematic and world-building, citing everything from video game music to Nas, RADIOHEAD, and Hieronymus Bosch as influence. One journalist described DBHB AS, "flick[ing] through the wreckage of the twentieth-century Americana like it was TV channels on a concave wood-paneled screen, jerry-building a mock-epic anti-hero tale along the way.” Chino GRADUATED CUM LAUDE WITH A BFA IN 2009 FROM Virginia Commonwealth.
In 2015, Chino co-founded the globally revered, and first ever of its kind, African diaspora label, NON Worldwide. Along with co-founders, Angel Ho (Cape Town) and Nikisi (London), the independent label was dedicated to both African artists and artists of African descent. NON was as much a political movement as it was a label collective but its creed was fundamentally inclusive, “NON SUPPORTS ITS CITIZENS OF THE UNITED RESISTANCE". In 2016, with a nod to Brian Eno, NON released Amobi’s EP Airport Music For Black Folk. Joe Muggs of The Wire called the EP, "a sonic illustration of the tensions felt by non-white travelers in today's surveillance society.” Later that year, Red Bull Music Academy presented a NON showcase at NYC’s New Museum.
In 2017, Chino’s debut LP, fOR Uno Records, Paradiso, received Album of the Year from Wire Magazine. Rolling Stone also named the album one of the year's best avant-garde releases. Following, Amobi scored a short for fashion house Kenzo, and Rick Farin (Actual Objects) directed 2018’s short film accompaniment to Paradiso. By 2019, Amobi had also completed a MFA in graphic design at VCU.
Chino’s paintings are currently represented by galleries in NYC (Meredith Rosen), Paris (Robby Fitzpatrick), and Washington DC (VOn ammon). He is currently working on his follow up to Paradiso. His most recent musical work from this year is, Labyrinth.
