Born in Floirac, a suburb of Bordeaux, Moussa Mansaly aka Sam's started rapping at a very early age, after listening to Nas, Tupac, NTM and Oxmo Puccino. He was only thirteen when he formed his first group, Le Square, with whom he opened for the Fonky Family and 113. In 2000, he set up his own label, Ecliptic Music, with two friends, and managed to support the Independence Tour with Sinik, Tandem and L'Skadrille. Noticed on the Hostile 2006 compilation and author of his first mixtape Un Nouveau Jour pour un Nouveau Billet in 2009, he was approached by Youssoupha, who offered him multiple collaborations, including accompanying him on his 2010 tour. They both opened for Snoop Dogg at the Olympia. 2011 saw the release of the Go Fast mixtape, on which his fiery vocals once again made their mark. This was followed by two digitapes, Gestlude and Gestlude 2 in 2012, before a full-fledged debut album, Dieu Est Grand, was released in 2015. Two years later, he made his film debut in the critically acclaimed Patients, directed by Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade. He returned to the limelight in 2019 with Deus Ex Machina, a high-profile EP, without putting his cinematic ambitions on hold, as he also starred in La Vie Scolaire . He was also spotted by the team behind the series Validé, directed by Franck Gastambide and broadcast in 2020, the first in France devoted to the hip-hop scene. Sam's plays the character of Mastar, the number one man in the hip-hop scene, and performs the homonymous song from the series.
