A schoolmate taught him to play guitar, and he became a leading member of a local group of "area boys" who hung out at a mechanic's shop on West Balogun Street.
By 1929, King had a clerical job and worked part-time as a singer and guitarist with a trio including guitar, samba and maracas, later changing to tambourine, guitar-banjo.
[3] The guitar-centered Jùjú musical style blends African elements such as the Yoruba talking drum with Western and Afro-Cuban influences.
[5] Tunde King says that the name "Jùjú" itself originated when he bought a tambourine from a Salvation Army store, which he gave to his Samba drummer.
The band members created a moderately paced ensemble sound that backed up the guitar and vocals with simple harmonic progressions.
The song "Soja Idunmota" describes a monument of a white soldier with a native carrier, whose head is hanging down, saying "Cruelly, they forget the common descent of man".
[3] The first mass recordings of Jùjú music were made by Parlophone of the EMI group, starting in 1936, released on 78rpm shellac discs.
[5] Tunde King's music influenced his contemporaries, as well as later players such as Akanbi Ege, Ayinde Bakare, Tunde Nightingale and Ojoge Daniel in the 1940s, players in the 1960s such as King Sunny Adé and Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, who introduced electric guitars, 1970s stars such as General Prince Adekunle and continued to have great influence into the 1980s, when stars such as Sir Shina Peters and Segun Adewale were playing modern forms of Jùjú.