Gambia's ENC to release debut album Victory

“The music industry is moving. I want to tell my fans to keep following and supporting as usual. They are doing the right thing," he told Gambian publication Voice Vibes ahead of the album's release.

The album was recorded at Worldvibes Records and is expected to contain about a dozen songs.

ENC's announcement might come as a surprise or an expected evolution for fans who once decried releasing his own album. "I don't want to do albums," he said three years ago around the time of the release of a compilation record called Allbomb. "I released two mixtapes...I also released Girls Segment, which had 17 tracks. The new compilation...has 25 tracks."

ENC was born in 1988 and began recording music in 2005, his first official single coming out the following year. He has worked on Gambian radio and for some time, released a song every fortnight.

About guests on Victory, he said: “I featured artists like ST, Gee, Bai Babu, Big Faa, A2, Limbo and [Jamaican act] Ishawna in this album. This is my first official album.

“All my many other projects were mixtapes and compilations. This album is special to me for the fact that I am putting in the long experience I have in the business, ranging from different sounds and genres. I have worked with a wide range of producers from different parts of the world. This album will take the listeners through a journey that you can only tell after listening to all the songs.”

Born Essa Colley but widely known by his stage name, ENC is regarded as one of the Gambia’s leading acts in the reggae-dancehall genre.