Born in Lagos, Nigeria where he began playing the conga at a young age, he has released seven albums and jointly won two Grammy Awards.
At the age of six, he had started playing the conga at his father's Aladura church and later formed a patchwork band with his peers.
[3] Babalola however dropped the engineering programme for music and later enrolled at the Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design where he studied filmmaking.
Upon his return to the U.K, Babalola later went on to work with notable acts including Prince, Ernest Ranglin, Branford Marsalis, African Jazz All Stars, Roy Ayers, David Byrne, Damon Albarn, Tony Allen amongst others.
[4] In 2006, he became Nigeria's first Grammy Award winner for his work on Ali Farka Touré's In the Heart of the Moon which he was credited in three tracks.