Ahmed Janka Nabay – one of Sierra Leone’s best-known musicians – has died aged 54, the music website Pitchfork reports.
Luaka Bop Records representatives confirmed his death to the website.
Nabay became known as the king of bubu music after taking traditional music of the Temne people in Sierra Leone and modernising it into an electronic dance subgenre.
He first rose to fame in Sierra Leone in the 1990s after competing in a talent contest, and later found fame in the US, where he fled after the civil war.
The cause of death was not clear.
Listen to some of his music below.