State of Mic Music Studio

State of Mic Music Studio was founded in 2007 and grew up to become a well-known audiovisual center within The Gambia. The studio focuses on music, video and new media by a group of volunteers from Holland. The main aim is to educate young talented filmmakers, music producers and sound designers to elevate the level of The Gambia audiovisual industry and secure their own income by working in the country.

Since the start of the project, workshops on audio and film production and festivals were conducted to promote local artists in The Gambia. In 2008, guest artist Raymzter visited State of Mic in The Gambia to record a track and music video with local artists. In that same year State of MIC released a Grounded DVD (Hip-Hop magazine about the Gambian music scene) to promote young talents in the music scene.

In 2009, another Guest artist Steen of Infected Records came to The Gambia to record an album with a producer known as Robin Veldman. The album featured local Gambian artists.

Music Producers like Ann One, Jr. Sam, Mustic and Melvin started recording and making beats for State of MIC. The studio is well known for producing a genre of music where hip-hop and reggae beats are fused with local instruments like the kora, jembeh, sabarr, halaam etc.

Early 2012, State of MIC produced an album for Gambia’s best AfroManding artist Manding Morry called ‘Kibaaroo’’ under the distribution of Music-O records. The album was recorded, mixed and mastered at State of MIC studio by Alieu AnnOne Jallow. It features singles such as ‘Fele ko Tele’ and ‘Gambia la diya’. State of MIC studio also produced hit singles for young artists in the Gambia like: Gee ‘Freedom of speech’ – T-smallz ‘Na Gambia - Tam50 ‘Monor’ – Cyco ‘Numbers’.