Passi, Royal Congo – RFI Musique
A thirty-year career and even going back to the first single from Ministère Ämer, a little more, traitors, published in 1991 and animated by Rapline with a black-and-white music video filmed in the heart of Sarcelles. The first chapter of the Passi Balende saga began with his arrival in Sarcelles in 1979, at the age of 7. Straight from the Congo.
The penultimate of a large family (6 brothers and sisters), Passi met his future brother Gilles Duarte aka Stomy Bugsy in college and formed the rap group Ministère Ämer with him. The Ministry, along with its manager and agent provocateur Kenzy, imposes a terminally tough image that almost passes NTM for sympathetic utopians.
In 1995, when the group signed, the scandal became national Sacrifice of chickensA track by Mathieu Kassovitz not included on the compilation accompanying the film, Hate. Fiery interviews, lawsuits, (huge) fines, we’ve never talked about a band so much with this titular attitude. This will be their last stand, as despite renewed promises from their members, Ministry is ceasing to materialize, with the project for a third album remaining a dead letter.
Passi, he has other problems: if he does not appear in this culinary and provocative title, it is because he is elsewhere. In prison. A dark connection between young people from the neighborhood, where he will be exonerated after a stint in prison, which will be the subject of one of his most famous solo pieces, to take deadly revenge. Maton looks at me.
The first album
But Passi is warming up to him before his first album The flames of evilA gorgeous apocalyptic title featuring the film’s music by Jean-François Richet My 6T Crack-erCredited by Skyrock programmer Laurent Bouneau “a big shock, a very, very big piece”. duet with Doc Gyneco, Does it do that?on it First consultation multi-platinum and Passi is ready for the big adventure: the album The Temptations Released in 1997, it was carried by a hit single I Zap and I watch. It’s a triumph, selling around 500,000 copies and Passi is touring the world. Dakar, Montreal, Cologne, Belfort for Eurockéennes, Paris at Zenith, Highness Double S presents itself as a heavyweight of French rap.
We see him with the band Sector Ä for the famous Paris concert ten little niggers celebrates the abolition of slavery, and Africa is the focus of his next project. Made in Congo Bisso Na Bisso. “Bisso, we started before my solo album, there’s a track from November 1996. CONGO.. I was working on my album on one side and Bisso on the other. We met with Congolese in the studio and that’s how the group came together, the dream came.”. Examples from Pamelo Nmouka and Franklin Boukaka, Lokua Kanza, Monique Seka, Koffi Olomidé, Jean-Phi Dary, Papa Wemba, Michel Alibo, Polipo…
Bisso Na Bisso will win at the Kora Awards in Sun City, South Africa, where the Passi-led collective was named Best African Group, featuring Nelson Mandela and Michael Jackson. Not bad for a project that some pessimists considered a foregone conclusion.
The albums follow each other, each with its moments of grace: riots on the LP CreationAznavour and the example of the choir of the Red Army, veteran (Zao classic cover) With Stomy Odyssey.
Producer Passi presents his CD series Tell me the time (rhymes, zouk, ragga dancehall, hip-hop rock, afro zouk, afro pop) and became a brand ambassador. Street wear In 2001. We discovered him as a judge on a musical reality show New star.
Image side
The 21st century sees him moving towards the image. He directed about fifteen video clips, including Johnny Hallyday’s clip with Nazir Amer. Time is goingIn 2008. He, a serial killer in Inspector SoriMamady Sidibe’s soap opera signs feature film soundtrack The movie 2005 and appears in several TV movies.
In 2021, German director Lisa Bierwith offered her the lead role Prince, in which she plays an undocumented diamond dealer who falls in love with a gallery owner in Frankfurt. The film won the best foreign film award at the Ecrans Noirs festival in Yaoundé.
2023 is the time for the first assessment after three decades of musical and visual activism, with two events that brought Passi back into the headlines. First reprint temptations digitally (with an unreleased vinyl version coming next April), but also a Paris gig at Point FMR on Wednesday 1 February and a new EP with the evocative title, afro.
Always on the side of Africa
afroit’s Passi’s new celebration of Africanness, traveling between France, Congo, Ghana and Nigeria. features weight from the first continent: Ghana’s Sarkodie is on fire How much is it?Congolese Roga Roga (creator of Extra Musica, kings of rumba) rocks My Afrikaans and Praiz from Nigeria sings in a trio folio.
But there is also France Orti, a new artist signed by Passi, a winner Discovery of a foreign artist Singing in Igbo, Pidgin and Yoruba at Supremes Dynamic Talent Academy Awards in Ghana 2022 omerta and folio.
In short, from Sarcelles to the Congo and back, the saga continues for Passi, who has proven versatile and artistically long-lived in his thirty-year rapological career. Does it do that? Yes, yes!
Pass afro (Spyce Publishing) 2023
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