"I needed to sing and talk to this child, say to him: 'Maybe one day I'll find you'. I still hope, like all fathers. ”
Such is the wish of Soprano, formulated during an interview granted to the program Seven to eight.
Asked by Audrey Crespo-Mara, the Marseille rapper returned to this first child, abandoned at birth, but also on his personal journey, his inspirations and the role played by his family in his career as an artist.
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Born in the northern districts of Marseille, this son of Comorian immigrants is the first French rapper to have filled the Vélodrome, during a concert given on October 7, 2017 in front of 55,000 spectators. Enough to eclipse his predecessor in the matter, a certain Johnny Hallyday, the first French artist to have created such a stir at the Marseille stage.
“I hung out in this stadium every weekend to go support my favorite team
,
”
laughs Soprano, whose passion for singing dates back to childhood.
“I was indirectly born
[in music].
In my family, we were at the school of the Republic during the week and at the weekend at the Muslim school.
[…]
Each time, I was called to make the call to prayer.
My comrades said that I had a high-pitched voice. "
Soprano.
Such was his nickname, such was his stage name.
Immersed from childhood
“Every time I made the call to prayer, doing religious songs, it led me to do lots of little melodies,”
explains the 42-year-old artist. But his love of the stage had to come from an far more spectacular musical event.
“Michael Jackson has arrived. I was only 5 years old.
[…]
I wanted to be like him, I wanted to smile like him, I wanted to do the show like him, I wanted to give happiness like him. Well, I was not good at dancing backwards, but if I could give stars in the eyes like him, it was a happiness for me ”
, concedes the interpreter of
Cosmo
.
Influences, too, coming from his school learning.
“Madame Monnier was my teacher at school.
She found something very simple: words.
Word games, metaphors, alexandrines.
We were all concentrated in the classroom when she made us study a text by MC Solaar, Francis Cabrel or Brassens.
It felt like we were playing checkers or chess.
[…]
She succeeded in giving us a taste for something. "
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But if music animates him, in the eyes of his parents studies prevail. Her passion ? He hides her jealously, for fear of angering those who have given up everything to give him a better life. On July 7, 1998, the ax fell: he failed his baccalaureate. That day,
“my father was at the foot of my bed, he was looking at me a little askance. It was after that I saw that he had tears in his eyes. He said to me: "I sacrificed everything so that you have a future, so that you can go to school and learn things. And you, you don't care. You'd rather go do stupid things, do music. While I didn't even see my father die. I left everything so that you could get your baccalaureate. I did it all for nothing "."
The effect ofa slap in the face for the young rapper.
"There was a moment when I wanted to take my life"
“When I was younger, I was with a girl
, chokes Soprano.
And we had a child at 16.
Without warning him, the young mother places him in the Ddass.
“We were too young, it was complicated.
For her too ”
, recognizes the rapper, now father of two daughters and a son.
“The child was born under X.
[…]
According to French law, I, who did not recognize him, am not the father, I am nothing, I cannot do anything.
This is the thing that hurt me the most.
Right now, I don't know if he's alive, if he's healthy. "
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The wound, still alive, is at the origin of some of his most beautiful texts.
Parle-moi
, a song released in 2007, is aimed precisely at this child he so desires to know.
"I needed to sing and talk to this child, say to him: 'Maybe one day I'll find you'. I still hope, like all fathers. ”
After the abandonment,
“there was a moment when I wanted to take my life.
[…]
Fortunately the music was there. ”
Last drama in this already very damaged existence: the death of his father in 2020, death of Covid-19 in the Comoros.
“We took a plane but it didn't take time to get there. We wanted to bring him to Reunion Island for treatment. He would have been in another country, he would have been in France, he would still be alive. "
If he did not have his baccalaureate, Soprano fights
"every day to be proud"
.
“I think my father left proud. I did everything to bury him with dignity. I did everything to make my mother happy and at peace. I have done everything so that my family is united and I hope that will continue. In any case, I will fight for it. ”
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