Quick Facts
Biography
Gilbere Forté (born July 14, 1987) is an American recording artist, songwriter and producer.
Early life, education, and career beginnings
Born in Flint, Michigan (later moving to Chicago, IL, then Philadelphia, PA) music has played an integral role in Gilbere's life. Embracing his parents musical taste, by age 9 he was reciting lyrics from his favorite artists, which inevitably led to Gilbere penning his own songs by age 12. This continued through high-school and into college.
The inspiration to take music seriously led Gilbere to pursue a degree in Entrepreneurship & Business Management at Temple University, where he enrolled in the fall of 2006. As Gilbere progressed as a musician, he began an internship at Studio 609 with award winning production duo Dre & Vidal. The experience and experimentation with Logic and live instrumentation, presented a true opportunity for Gilbere to carve out his own sonic identity. In building his musical foundation he transitioned from producer to artist – teaming up with fellow Temple producer, Rakib “Raak” Uddin.
2010–2011
In 2010, Gilbere formalized his relationship with Raak. The two busily began preparing Gilbere's debut, 87 Dreams. The release solidified Gilbere as a strong voice not to be ignored, and sparked a bidding war amongst many major labels. This critical acclaim, led to a slew of 2010 featured guest appearances, most notably, Stromae's "Alors on danse" remix also featuring Kanye West, the Yeasayer remix of Florence + The Machine's "Dog Days Are Over", and the Diplo and Switch-produced "Up All Night" by Alex Clare. As well as Chris Robinson-directed video for his breakout single "Black Chukkas". February 2011 saw a release of the much anticipated Don Cannon-produced/hosted EYES of VERITAS mixtape (featuring additional production from Boi-1da, Bink, Lex Luger, and Raak), Gilbere's popularity increased. The lead single "Born In '87" led to a slew of even bigger opportunities, most notably a feature spot in the 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards Cypher and the FUSE TV Hip Hop Shop Cypher.
2012–2013
With a few international features under this belt, Gilbere spent some time in Paris collaborating and touring with French-record producer/DJ Bob Sinclar. He is featured on two tracks from Bob's latest album Disco Crash, "F*** With You" alongside Sophie Ellis-Bextor and "Around the World". While splitting time between Los Angeles and Philadelphia, Gilbere Forté prepared his next body of work. Appropriately on Halloween, he returned with the haunting Fiona Apple "Every Single Night"-sampled song and visual for the lead-single to his project, "Pray". Soon after, news of Gilbere's free agent status began to circulate throughout the music industry, and offers for record deals began to surface. The week following impressive showcases at SXSW, Gilbere announced via his Twitter that he signed a new deal with Epic Records. Crediting God, and the act of prayer for his renewed sense faith in life, music and himself, he release the aptly titled PRAY, on May 15, 2013.
2016
After a two-year hiatus Gilbere made his return to music with longtime collaborator Raak to announce their new band, HUNTR. A full-length debut album will be available September 23rd.
Discography
- Studio albums
- 87 Dreams (2010)
- Eyes of Veritas (2011)
- PRAY (2013)
As featured artist
| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS | BEL | FRA | ITA | |||
| 2011 | "Alors on danse" (Remix) (Stromae featuring Kanye West and Gilbere Forte) | 79 | – | – | – | Non-album single |
| 2012 | "Fuck With You" (Bob Sinclar featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Gilbere Forte) | – | 35 | 144 | 7 | Disco Crash |
| "—" denotes a single that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | ||||||