Kaaris

Full of swaggering showmanship with visceral, extravagant portraits of street life, Kaaris has been a notorious voice of the French gangsta rap scene since the late 2000s, rising from cult underground MC to become a controversial, high-profile star of European hip-hop. Growing up in the North East Parisian suburbs of Sevran from the age of three, Kaaris (born January 30th, 1980), whose real name is Okou Armand Gnakouri, briefly returned to his homeland of the Ivory Coast in 2003 to work with his brother, but made his way back to France when civil war broke out. He'd grown up writing rhymes and battling with friends, but in 2007 he began rapping under the name 43rd BIMA (the military camp which had helped him escape the war) and really made his mark on the underground rap world when Booba heard him freestyling on a Despo Rutti track and featured him on his Autopsie Vol. 4 mixtape in 2011 and album Futur in 2012. The support of radio station Skyrock FM was another factor in building his profile, and with the help of producer Therapy, he created a heavy, violent, hardcore style filled with brutal street tales and swaggering machismo on his classic debut album Or Noir (2013). Legendary hip-hop label Def Jam soon signed him up, and later albums Le Bruit de Mon Âme in 2015 and Okou Gnakouri in 2016 firmly established Kaaris as one of French rap's most explosive, uncompromising lyricists. He also collaborated on tracks with US rappers such as Future and Gucci Mane and reached Number 3 on the French charts with album Dozo (2017); but a long-running feud with former friend Booba led to a huge brawl in the departures hall at Orly airport in Paris in 2018, and a high-profile court case involving both rappers followed. Kaaris tried his hand at acting too with roles in the crime thriller Braquers (2015) and the Van Damme action movie The Bouncer (2018), but returned to music in 2019 with the hit album Or Noir Part 3 and single “Octogone”. His ensuing effort, 2020’s 2.7.0, once again claimed a spot in the national Top 5, with its two singles, the Call of Duty-inspired “Goulag” and the drill-leaning “NRV”, proving to be his two highest-charting singles in his home country to date at Number 5 and Number 8 respectively. Remarkably, sixteen of the project’s eighteen non-singles also charted, with “Illimité”, “Sosa” and the Bosh collaboration “Deux deux” even reaching the French Top 20. A deluxe edition of his sixth full-length titled 2.7.0: Château Noir appeared in 2021 and was followed by the Kalash Criminel collaborative album SVR a year later. "Apocalypse," one of the singles from the album featuring Freeze Corleone, rose to Number 2 on the French Singles Chart.