He is from Skåne, the southernmost part of Sweden, from a city called Lund, and raps with a slight Skåne accent. He has firmly established himself as a political rapper, borrowing influences from folk music, American blues as well as music from west africa and Jamaica.
Timbuktu started rapping in the early 1990s, and quickly became very popular in the hip hop scenes of Malmö, Stockholm, and Copenhagen. In the mid 90s he formed the group Excel with the Danish producer Obi. In 2000, his first solo album, T2: Kontrakultur, was released. The double album features one disc with tracks in English and the other disc in Swedish. At the same time as he was recording T2, Timbuktu toured with Petter and Thomas Rusiak.
Timbuktu has also recorded with members of Looptroop and he is a member of the Swedish Reggae group Helt Off.