Booba

Real name Élie Yaffa, Booba was born on December 9, 1976 in Boulogne-Billancourt in the Hauts-de-Seine region, where he grew up in the Meudon-la-Forêt neighborhood. After starting out with Lunatic, Booba launched his solo career in 2002 with Temps Mort, which was certified gold. He released Panthéon in 2004, which also went gold, followed by a mixtape entitled Autopsie Vol. 1 in 2005. Booba confirmed his dominant position on the French rap scene with the back-to-back releases of Ouest Side and the mixtape Autopsie Vol. 2 in 2006 and 2007 respectively. A third installment in this mixtape series was released in 2009, just a few months after Booba's fourth solo album, 0.9. With Lunatic, released in 2010, the rapper set out to hit the big time, selling 200,000 copies, followed in 2011 by the fourth installment in the Autopsie series. While he engaged in a series of verbal (and sometimes physical) jousts with other French rap heavyweights such as Rohff, Seth Gueko, La Fouine and Kaaris, Booba remained prolific in the rap arena, and never saw his success decline over the next five years. During this period, he enriched his discography with the albums Futur in 2012, D.U.C and Nero Nemesis in 2015, and Trône in 2017, which alludes to his longevity at the top. With his tenth album, Ultra, released in 2021 and featuring the single "Mona Lisa" with JSX, Booba announces the end of his career. Preferring to concentrate on production and artistic direction of the rappers on his label, he did not rule out the possibility of singles in the future. In the end, however, he returned to the studio to work on Ad Vitam Æternam, released in 2024, with the singles "Sport Billy" (No. 14 in France), "Saga" (No. 4) and "6G " (No. 1). The album features guest contributions from SDM, Gato Da Bato, Sicario, Usky and Evil P.