Biography Intro: Gilbert Bani (born August 1, 1986) popularly known by his stage name A-Q, is a Nigerian rapper, recording artist, dancer, songwriter, and performer.

NAME: Gilbert Bani

DATE OF BIRTH: August 1, 1986

PLACE OF BIRTH: lagos

OCCUPATION:

EDUCATION:  Kings College Lagos, and had his tertiary education at the University of Lagos.

CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:

A-Q signed his first record deal in 2001 with Big Leaf Records where he was for two years before he started working on his own in 2003. His first single “(W)rap Nigeria”, produced by kraftmatics, debuted in 2004 followed by a music video. He subsequently released a full compilation album Listen and Understand in 2005 followed by another single, “Things That We Do”, which got him an international online distribution deal. In 2006 A-Q put out a mixtape titled Maga Must Pay vol 1.

A-Q took a break from music to finish his education in University of Lagos but still managed to release a single, “Make Money”, and accompanying video in 2008 produced by Laylow and featuring Morachi and Xtrim off an online mixtape titled Love and Money.

A-Q graduated in 2010 and returned to the entertainment industry, this time co-floating a record label, Hustle Inc, on whose platform he started Black Friday Twitter Freestyles, a weekly free download release. This got him online acknowledgement including from producer Don Jazzy who styled him “one of the sickest rappers alive”. He recorded and released The Past Present and Future album in December 2010 which had the singles “Names” and “Champagne and Rum”. He released more music including “Distractions” featuring Vector in 2012, “Machine Gun Flow”, “555 (5beats 5verses and 5blessings)”, and “Why” featuring Pamela.