She began her recording career as a choir member in
Hezekiah Walker's Love Fellowship Crusade Choir.
Sisters With Voices (SWV) From 1990 to 1998, Gamble sang with the platinum recording group,
Sisters With Voices (SWV). Collectively the female trio released five albums - with their debut ''
It's About Time'' (1992) selling over three million copies making SWV a big hit and earning the group numerous awards and accolades, including a nomination for the
Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the
1994 Grammy Awards. After their 1997
Christmas album, SWV disbanded. To commemorate their tremendous success and huge contribution to the
contemporary R&B genre in the early 1990s, six compilation albums were released compiling their best efforts. Gamble made the final decision to disband the group. In an interview, Gamble stated it was not a mutual decision, that many people tried to convince her to stay but it was inevitable. Gamble went on to say that she didn't feel appreciated, that there was no unity within the group and the communication was gone. Gamble did not speak to founding member Leanne "Lelee" Lyons for several years. SWV eventually reunited and released two albums in the 2010s.
Solo career After SWV disbanded, Gamble went on to work with other artists such as
Will Smith, most notably on his
Grammy Award-winning hit single "
Men in Black" from the
blockbuster film of the same name (1997). Gamble went on to release her first solo album under
RCA, titled
Hot Coko, released in August 1999. The first single, "Sunshine," which was dedicated to her son
Jazz, reached the Top 40 position in the R&B charts that summer. However, both the album and singles did not gather the same mainstream success as Gamble once did with SWV. Meanwhile, Gamble was working on a second solo album titled
Music Doll in early 2001, but RCA closed the black music division and the project was shelved. In 2001, Gamble and her Mother Lady "Clyde" Tibba Gamble did a remake of the song "
Tears in Heaven" (originally recorded by
Eric Clapton) on the album
Rhythm and Spirit: "Love Can Build a Bridge". The album featured other artists such as
Jennifer Holliday,
Patti LaBelle, and
Tramaine Hawkins. Gamble sang on the
Brent Jones and the T. P. Mobb single "Midnight" in 2002. Gamble also appeared on Youthful Praise's 2003 gospel album
Thank You for the Change singing lead on "Up There". Coko's full gospel solo debut,
Grateful, was released in the United States on October 31, 2006 and debuted at #5 on Billboard's Top Independent albums chart. An alternate version, minus Faith Evans was performed on
BET's ''Celebration of Gospel '07
. A special edition of Grateful'' only available through
Wal-Mart includes two bonus tracks "I Wish" and Brent Jones' "Midnite" featuring Gamble on lead vocals. Gamble was reported to have joined an all-black touring cast performing the critically acclaimed play
The Vagina Monologues, along with
Sherri Shepherd,
Star Jones,
Vanessa L. Williams, and others. In June 2008, Coko performed in Japan for the Billboard Live Tour. Gamble sang some of her solo hits "Sunshine", "Clap Your Hands", and the SWV song "
Right Here/Human Nature".
Reuniting with SWV Gamble reunited with SWV and performed during their first live performance in eight years in
Los Angeles for urban radio station
KKBT 100.3 "The Beat"'s Summerjam concert on August 20, 2005. They also appeared on the 2006 New Jack Reunion Tour. SWV was featured in the
XXL where they discussed single releases from their debut album ''It's About Time''. In the interview, Gamble mentioned that the group would no longer perform sexually-explicit songs such as "Downtown" and "
Can We" anymore out of a new respect for her beliefs as a
Christian. The group's final performance took place in
Toronto in late June 2007. On April 4, 2008, Coko returned with SWV to perform some of their hits for the local DJ Kid Kutts' birthday. As SWV was in the midst of new shows for early 2011, Gamble posed for a shoot in
Jackson, Mississippi with photographer Will Sterling. The photos were in fashionable gowns, set against the natural beauty of the
Mississippi Delta. ==Personal life ==