The view is breathtaking.
180 degrees on the Congo River from the 19th floor of this grand hotel in Kinshasa.
Suddenly, the door opens into Damso's room.
Its manager, Anissa Jalab, arrives, trembling, moved and addresses the Belgian rapper whose new album "QALF", or "Who likes like follow", was released two days before.
“Dem's
(Editor
's
note: his nickname)
, you are the most listened to artist in the world on the Spotify platform, on the day of the disc's release!
In front of the Americans.
The info has just been released.
»Silence.
" No?
Wow, ”answers the artist, totally flabbergasted.
He does not yet know that he has accumulated 14.3 million plays on the platform in France in 24 hours, thus offering himself the best start of the year in France.
Strange culture shock.
The musician is on top of the world and hovers above Kinshasa.
His hometown.
An almost miraculous return to roots in these times of a global pandemic for the Belgian artist, one of the most important of the moment.
"Even when he uses crude terms, he tints them with poetry"
In just three records and five years of career, Damso, whose real name is William Kalubi Mwamba, won with 1.2 million copies sold, a Victoire de la musique, a triumphal duet with Orelsan and songs written for Kendji Girac and Louane, while his fans spend hours deciphering the hidden meaning of the titles of his songs, his lyrics or the name of his albums "Lithopédion" or "Ipséité".
“Its greatest strength is to be in the tradition of singers with texts, in the vein of Jacques Brel, decrypts Fred Musa, hip-hop specialist and host of
Planète Rap
, Skyrock's flagship program.
For a long time, we looked for Gainsbourg in rap.
With Damso, we finally maybe found him.
In his art of handling words, he stands apart, even when he uses crude terms, he tints them with poetry.
And he's a hard worker who never stops.
Even in Kinshasa, each trip serves as a break to write on his smartphone what he is experiencing, as in a bubble.
Or rather a whirlwind, in the middle of this megalopolis which is home to between 14 and 20 million inhabitants.
VIDEO. Damso on stage at the AccorHotels Arena
On September 17, the Congolese capital receives him with the honors of a quasi-head of state: gala evening, meeting at the Ministry of Culture and human tide at each of his appearances in the street.
Soldiers and armed police supervise all his movements to control the crowd who wants to approach him, touch him like the messiah.
Stroll through the districts that bring him back to his first memories.
Damso grew up there, between a prominent cardiologist dad still in practice in Kinshasa and a mother first employed in a mineral company, then a sociologist.
Kinshasa, Saturday September 19.
Each exit of Damso in the city triggers crowds.
Vinz Kanté
“William has always been very wise, he internalized everything, stayed behind me, remembers Jean-Michel, his 31-year-old older brother who returned to live in the Congo.
I still see him on the first day of school with his little red Bermuda shorts and his soccer ball under his arm.
»Red, an indelible marker of his childhood.
That of the blood he saw flow.
In 2000 in Kinshasa, death in the face
We are in 2000. The country is being wiped out by a war which is tearing apart the whole of Central Africa and which has caused millions of deaths in the region, a conflict qualified by historians as “the First African World War”.
Damso was then 8 years old.
Today, he is 28 and is returning to his neighborhood at the time, Kasongo, for the first time.
“We had a house here,” he tells us.
At the time, it was shooting from all sides, it was screaming everywhere.
There was looting, rape.
Miraculously, we were not touched until neighbors reported us because we had money.
In the middle of the night, the whole family had to flee by piling up in a Jeep with a few things to take refuge in a small apartment of 20 m2 in a building, in the Gombé district.
I was a kid and I didn't understand what was going on.
"
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Until that day when he saw death in the face.
“A man was killed in front of my eyes, I heard the sound of the kalash bullet passing through a body.
At that precise moment, I was not afraid, I had no emotion.
I said to myself: here we are, we are going to die today and it will be like that.
And my dad saved our lives once again by getting us out of there.
At that point, I realized that there were some lives more important than others.
In Europe if you kill in the street, you go to prison.
Here, sometimes not.
Damso has "never talked about any of this before."
“Honestly, this return on the spot puts me in a daze as rarely.
When I returned, I was shocked to see these children who do not have a phone to listen to music and who sing my songs, know me, support me.
He was part of it twenty years ago in this fiery capital.
Everything predestined him to a university career nourished by the family culture transmitted by his parents.
It will ultimately be music and rap.
Refugee in Belgium, the silent teenager locks himself in his room.
He writes and records there in a mini-studio.
"He was fed on American rap that he played on a loop," recalls his brother Christian, 39, also returned to Kinshasa.
A thirst for reading inherited from his education
“At university, I was studying marketing, but I rapped all the time, I was in passion and pure, total love, with absolutely no desire to break into this environment,” says Damso.
One day, I had a momentous discussion with my mother.
She could see that my results were not crazy.
My mind was elsewhere.
I asked him from what monthly sum, without studying, I could succeed in my life?
€ 3,000?
5,000?
10,000?
I clicked and I said to myself: I'm going to make money, I'm going to drill.
I trained myself to answer interviews on my own, I put together a career plan.
"
He even cuts the bridges so as not to be influenced by his relatives and his family and goes so far as to become homeless for several months, sleeping at the Gare du Midi in Brussels.
“No one had any news, it was hard,” says his brother Jean-Michel.
But the music was louder than anything.
A first recording, spotted by Booba who takes him under his wing and in his collective.
Even if since then, the two heavyweights of hip-hop got angry, the career of Damso is launched.
Style too.
Dark, sour, powerful.
From his education, the rapper keeps the appetite for letters, the thirst for reading, the rigor in the studio where he spends hours on a sound.
From his studies, the direction of the marketing which passes by the discretion even the mystery to the point of not granting any interview before the release of his new album and to announce the arrival of the disc only a few hours before its posting on the platforms.
"No wonder he sets up schemes like that, he has always been very thoughtful, very calm," confirms his brother Jean-Michel.
He was very strong during his studies in marketing.
"
The pure emotion of returning to the native land
Kinshasa, September 17.
All over the city, many fans are calling out to him.
LP / Marie Poussel
But in Kinshasa, a few hours after the launch of “QALF”, there is no more calculation, no more strategy, just the pure emotion of returning to the native country.
After a surprise poster campaign of 54 panels on the African continent, he made sure that his album was released “in physical” (on CD) and ended up doing more interviews with local journalists on site.
"He is extremely careful, pays close attention to people here," explains Charles Tabu, his producer in Africa.
During the last tour here, complete months in advance, which never happens, he even stopped a concert because he saw, in the front row, a little one being run over.
"
In Kinshasa, Damso takes hours with the hundreds of fans waiting for him in front of his hotel.
“I was in their shoes twenty years ago.
So many little ones tell me:
I rap too
.
Being there for the release of the record is my way of highlighting young people, local artists.
If they want to go, it will be hard but it is possible.
I hope that by talking with me, it will open a door for them and that they will start to dream.
“Like Innoss'B, a young 23-year-old artist from Goma, who recorded a duet with him and shot a clip when we came to Kinshasa.
“It's an honor to have Damso with us these days.
Everyone here adores it.
It shows that in the Congo, anything is possible.
"
Same feeling for the star of the country, Fally Ipupa.
“Even if he lives in Europe, Damso cannot escape his Congolese identity, especially since today she influences all French-speaking music,” explains the 42-year-old singer, who has just recorded with the rapper.
He represents us well, he is polite, does his thing in his corner, works a lot, does not make waves.
"
Kinshasa, Saturday September 19.
Damso during the filming of his music video.
In the foreground, a t-shirt with the sign Vie, the sign of the rapper.
LP / Marie Poussel
Both perform "Do that well" in the album "QALF" where Damso wants to be romantic, after having been sometimes questioned for lyrics considered misogynistic by some.
“When I talk about women, these are my personal stories, I never generalize, as soon as I express myself, we launch into interpretations before even trying to understand me.
I really am not a misogynist.
I even found myself feminist on certain points ”, he confided to us two years ago.
Commit to Africa
Today, he raps "I want love, the real one" or "I soften myself, I fell in love" in "911" where he says he is in love.
"If you have women in your audience, you've won everything because they can support you until your 80s," enthuses Fally Ipupa, sensitive to the African atmospheres of this new album.
And then with the Congo behind it, it's still 80 million inhabitants.
And his presence in Kinshasa is a mark of respect for our heritage.
"
Brussels, July 17, 2020. Damso and Fally Ipupa during the recording of the song “Fais ça bien” at the ICP studio.
DR
Damso knows it.
“In all areas, Africa always and always comes last.
During my tour on this continent in 2019, I had a click.
I remember Africa a lot in my lyrics, but what did I do for her?
Today, he wants to get involved.
"I am very interested in the fight of Doctor Denis Mukwege, whom I met, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2018, who fights against the rapes of women in blood minerals
(Editor's note: where we extract tin, tantalum, gold or even tungsten in a climate of violence and armed conflict), he
announces.
I want to go on the ground, I am even ready to die for this cause because I know that these are extremely dangerous sectors.
I have yet to see anyone with a reputation like mine that touches young people take an interest in this.
"
The road between the West and Africa is still long for Damso.
"The Black Lives Matter movement concerns educated blacks, those who express themselves well," he concludes.
But the African, no one respects his rights, no one calculates it.
My mission as an artist is to bring to light those that no one wants to see.
I am not naive, I know that I will not change everything in a snap, but it is important to me to contribute.
"
Bio express
May 10, 1992.
Birth in Kinshasa of William Kalubi Mwamba aka Damso, his nickname since he was little.
2001.
He fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo with his family and settled in Belgium.
July 8, 2016.
Release of "Low Battery", first album sold 205,600 copies.
April 28, 2017.
Release of his second album “Ipseité”, which includes the hit “O. Macarena”.
Over 600,000 sales.
June 15, 2018.
Release of his third album “Lithopédion”.
December 4, 2018.
Performs for the first time at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris.
February 8, 2019.
Music victory for best rap album.
September 18, 2020.
Surprise release of his fourth album "QALF"