He turns on his almost 2 meters of former basketball player. Shakes your hand above his sulky teenage head and films in panoramic the new Grail he has just received from the mayor of Fontenay-sous-Bois (Val-de-Marne). The story is ready for Instagram and its 270,000 subscribers.
Kaza the untouchable manages its communication. Manages the codes, those of this generation which knows and which, above all, has decided to do without “the big media”. It’s hard to blame him. Because he did not need it to explode the scores of French rap with his title “HRTBRK # 2”.
Shot at the bottom of the towers of his city of Larris, his clip would soon record 30 million views on YouTube as soon as it was online at the start of 2019. Enough to make the record companies blush who scrambled to catch him by the hood. Three weeks later, Kaza signed with Warner and his legendary label, Elektra Records. Since then, with rare well-chosen exceptions, Kaza refuses any interview.
But when it comes to the city that saw him grow up, the rapper brings down the fortress well guarded by his big brother as a manager. And settles down without too much fuss in the chair of the Fontenay Prize winners alongside the mayor (FG), Jean-Philippe Gautrais, who broadcast Covid-19 version wishes on Sunday in the form of a TV show.
He arrived a little earlier with his “crew”, his loyal Fontenay clan. Black jogging, black puffer jacket, bag with the logo of a luxury Italian brand. Monstrous neon sneakers, chunky rings and bling charms for only fantasy. Kaza embraces the image of Epinal of the dukes of rap.
We catch him between the makeup and the set. Far from the frowning eyes of his brother Christopher who watches, mutic. The young colossus is not so fierce and after a few words, we are almost astonished to discover behind the facade the tender and youthful face, even shy, of the star barely out of adolescence. Because Kaza has only just celebrated his 20 years with a gold record for his first album “HRTBRK” (for “Heartbroken”, broken heart in English).
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“It’s nice, I did not do all this for nothing,” he says soberly away from the agitation that reigns in the Jacques-Brel room. In the same place where, in January 2020, after a year of a lightning whirlwind on the rap planet, Anthony Kazadi (real name) offered his first concert to the young people of Fontenay unleashed in front of their idol.
“I am proud that someone here has made his little hole, even if for the moment I live it from afar, as if I were outside”, continues the one who, born in Nogent, grew up and still lives in his district of Larris in Fontenay. “The best city in the world”, which he will leave anyway as soon as he finds an “isolated house to be quiet” not very far from Paris.
“My life has changed, but I see the same people as before”
Not very far from his family of Congolese origin either. In his songs as in life, Kaza often becomes Anthony again, the youngest of a family of four children, the time to pay tribute to his mother who listens “all the time” to his music like that of his brother Jason, alias Child. poor, the other rapper in the family.
“The hardest part is being exposed, my life has changed in everything, but in reality nothing. I hang out with the same people, the same places as before. Those who know me know that I’m still the same, when I’m there it’s like before, ”he says.
On leaving his former high school, Pablo-Picasso, ask the pupils if they know Kaza and it is the general excitement, collection of selfies in support: “He’s our big brother, we see him all the time. time in the neighborhood is an example for us. To break into rap or something else, he is proof that we can do something with our life even if we come from here. “
Jean-Philippe Gautrais says no less, remembering Anthony who came knocking on his door less than two years ago when he was still unknown: “We grew up in the same neighborhood, my parents live in the building. nearby. A personality like Kaza is a lot of pride, for urban culture too. Its success shows that when you come from a working-class neighborhood, you can succeed. It allows other young people who want to explore their talents to be valued. ”
He began to write at the age of 6
Kaza draws his talent from his daily life. His lyrics, sometimes sung more than rapped, certainly speak of money, but above all of disappointed love. The young artist is a “broken heart” as one can be at 20 years old. Slips between the lines of a verve less raw than one might expect, the disillusioned and still green melancholy of the romantic who disillusioned without admitting it.
«HRTBRK it’s a state of mind, it doesn’t mean that we’re fragile, but just that life is difficult, it’s not just love, you can be heartbroken for many reasons. We have other priorities than girls or love. The family, the money, and after the rest, ”he defended a few months ago in an interview for Clique TV. Kaza is not at a contradiction, as one can be at 20, too.
He who, knowing how to read at the age of 5, began to write at the age of 6. Easy rhymes first, to dissect the words, which have worn out his school notebooks before being spat out after maturation in the microphones of a studio in Romainville (Seine-Saint-Denis), “just like that, with friends”.
A second album in preparation
At this not-so-distant time, Kaza studied international trade at the University of Paris-Est-Créteil and got his legs on the bike for a home delivery application which he would not advertise: “I went to the end of my license, it was important for my mother, but when the music started to work, I immediately stopped the deliveries, it taught me that I had to work, that we had nothing for nothing . “
So Kaza, inspired by the very popular rapper Drake whose “versatile career” he praises, Booba or Niska, continues to work. Chain the featuring, with Gambi, the other star of Fontenay who appears in his clips, or Maes, a well-established rapper from Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis), whom he listens to repeatedly. But above all preparing a second album on which it remains, once again, very mysterious.
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