Morad arrives an hour late for the appointment, but for a good reason: he had to pick up his little brother, who is still studying, at his mother's house, and arrive at the Plaza de Europa in L'Hospitalet, with the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at full capacity, it is not easy.
Family is the axis around which the world of this concentrated rapper, with a taciturn air and little festive spirit, revolves, who neither drinks alcohol nor goes out to party except out of necessity.
He apologizes for the delay, orders a latte, and lights a cigarette.
To chat, he prefers a raised concrete block, where the sun softens the cold of this February morning, the eve of a trial in which he faces six and a half years in prison for inciting young people from La Florida, his hometown neighborhood in L' Hospitalet (Barcelona) and from where he is banished, to attack local police officers.
The rapper, who at 24 years old fills stadiums throughout Europe, once again faces the ghosts of a past that he is trying to leave behind.
It is not easy for him because the files against him are piling up on the court shelves.
The Prosecutor's Office is asking him for six and a half years in prison for inciting public disorder and attacking with a dangerous instrument because on August 11, 2021, while recording one of his video clips in La Florida, he allegedly incited the crowd against the police ("yes "You keep appearing in the square, this will end badly") and threw eggs and stones at them while inciting the others.
In another procedure, regarding events that occurred just a month earlier in the same scenario, the Prosecutor's Office asks him for another six years in prison for “intimidating” two
police officers
with an electric defense.
Morad El Khattouti defends his innocence in these two cases that threaten to lead him to prison.
And, with a new look at reality, the result of experience and his forced departure from La Florida, he wants to continue with a meteoric musical career that has made him one of the stars of urban music.
He barely gives a smile to this serious boy, who is often indignant, who demands respect for his people and for himself, who believes he has learned from the mistakes of his adolescence but without flagellating himself for it.
Ask.
She says she has matured.
At what point in life is she?
Answer.
I never regret anything, but there are things I could have done better.
I didn't have adolescence and, when I left the juvenile center, everything came to me at once, it made a world of sense to me.
My failure has been not knowing how to cope with some things.
Now I have learned not to put myself in situations I don't have to be in.
But I have not robbed anyone, I have not hit anyone and I have contributed to many things in my neighborhood with my pocket, my heart and my desire.
Q.
You've been on tour all over Europe, and traveling tends to change people.
Has this been your case?
A.
I have sung all over Europe and Latin America, and seeing that there are people who cry for you, who queue up to listen to you, gives you enormous pride even though they say a thousand bad things about you.
Furthermore, I have realized that there is also life outside the neighborhood.
Q.
A judge prohibited you from entering your neighborhood, La Florida, the setting and inspiration for your songs, for fear that you would instigate riots.
How are you living that exile?
A.
It is a very great injustice that makes me angry, because I could be happier being there.
Even those who hate me the most recognize that it makes no sense to kick a person out of the place where they would like to be.
I have seen people with more serious cases than mine, rapists and men who hit women or their children... And there they continue.
In my neighborhood I was always surrounded by children, not gangsters.
Q.
Far from the neighborhood, are you afraid of losing contact with the street?
A.
No, because eight people from my neighborhood always accompany me on all my trips.
Q.
Do you feel that, outside your circle, other people are approaching you out of interest?
A.
Yes, of course, that happens even in the neighborhood.
It's normal, it's life.
I'm not spiteful.
They once told me: “If you weren't a singer, posh people wouldn't ask you for photos.”
Q.
And it's not true?
A.
Yes, but that's not bad.
If, thanks to music, I have managed to make those people also connect with me, it is a source of pride.
Q.
To those kids from another social background who listen to you and who perhaps are not familiar with the codes of the neighborhood, why do you think they like it?
A.
There are values that all people share.
Before I talked more about my reality in the neighborhood.
Now I also write about loneliness, about helping yourself, about loyalty and betrayals of friends, about caring for a mother.
A posh kid who is always taking care of a girl and doesn't see his mother can identify with my songs, because he wants the love of his mother like a neighborhood child.
Q.
There is often a love-hate relationship with neighborhoods.
What many kids want is to get out of there...
A.
Everyone wants to leave the neighborhood, but not leave it.
Have a better life, travel from time to time, go to the beach, have dinner in the center of Barcelona...
Q.
Do you think that a somewhat romantic idea of the neighborhood has been fostered?
A. Now a thousand videos,
podcasts
and documentaries
are made about the neighborhoods.
Now that the neighborhoods are so popular and cool, we should invest more in them, give them a boost, so that everyone benefits from it;
for example, with sports workshops.
In the neighborhood there is perhaps more desire than in other places where they already have everything.
Morad, during the interview, in L'Hospitalet.massimiliano minocri
Q.
Has leaving Florida [you cannot enter since October 2022] good for you?
A.
Since they expelled me from the neighborhood I have had the two best years of my career, I have traveled a lot, I have sung all over the world, I have met people, I have invested my money... Since they expelled me from Florida I have not returned. have a crime.
I have traveled through Europe, Latin America and Africa and nothing has ever happened.
Why did my only problems happen in a square meter?
The neighborhood is the only place where I am not a singer and where the police do not treat me with respect.
Q.
Why do you think there has been this hostility?
A.
I don't know, there are police officers who when they see me think "I'm going to step on this kid."
I have never touched anyone, but if a police officer disrespects a kid or myself for no reason, I am going to defend him and we are going to argue.
Q.
Do you think there are people who are bothered that you have succeeded?
A.
Yes, and it doesn't make sense.
There are people who do not live their lives, who live criticizing others from the couch, thinking: “That's a
piece of junk
, he doesn't deserve it.”
Q.
Have you felt like a victim of racism in Spain?
A.
I don't think there is widespread racism.
People in general are good.
Four years ago, I was nobody.
Now people see me and admire me, they treat me with respect and affection.
Q.
Now that you are rich and famous, do they look at you differently?
A.
Sure.
Sometimes they don't know you in a restaurant and they don't want to give you a table.
But then the waiter recognizes you, tells the manager and he apologizes and lets you in.
Q.
Isn't that attitude a little classist?
A.
Yes, it is sad and angry, but everyone is the owner of their place.
In mine I would not let in a person who is racist or who treats others badly.
Plus, life can hit you for acting like this.
If you treat me badly when I'm nobody, when I'm someone I'm not going to go to your place.
Q.
Is it easier for you to feel Moroccan than Spanish or Catalan?
A.
Wow, I can't talk about that because then they will say that I am from one side or the other.
I am from the town, from the street.
I don't identify with nationalities because all that is mixed with politics.
I would like to say that I am Spanish because I have lived here, I went to school here, I had my first love here, my friends, my falls... But it makes everyone feel bad when I say it.
Q.
Do you feel that, when it comes to your problems with the law, you have been pointed out more severely than others?
A.
Much more.
With me it has been taken to another level.
There are days when I have sat and thought: what am I, a singer or a criminal?
When I have done bad things, entire television programs have been broadcast, which do not say good things, like having gone on a
tour
of Europe, with all the tickets sold, which no one in Spain does unless you are Rosalía.
Q.
This Wednesday you face an important trial, with prison requests on the table, and others are to come.
What is your position?
A.
What I have done wrong, such as driving issues and something else, I have accepted, I have complied and I have paid what I had to pay.
But there are things that I have not done and in which I have nothing to do, and I am going to fight for my innocence.
Q.
Do you fear that these processes will interrupt your career?
A.
It is not going to be interrupted, it is impossible.
I've always had a lot of music saved, people know that.
Q.
Why do you hardly laugh, at least in public?
A.
Because I am not happy.
I work to be one someday and to sleep peacefully.
But it's okay, it doesn't bother me.
Q.
What doesn't make you happy?
R.
People's hatred, that has hurt me a lot.
Seeing myself always in the news for bad things, and seeing that my mother suffers because of it.
Without knowing me, they have painted me as if I were the baddest in the world.
I am tough and none of that knocks me down, but it makes me angry.
Q.
Where is your music going?
R.
Towards what you feel at the moment.
To live in reality, bad things have to hurt you.
And just because you are famous and have money doesn't mean you don't experience bad things anymore.
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