Koba LaD

Rising from the southern suburbs of Paris, Koba LaD was just 18 when he landed a deal with the Def Jam label and became an overnight sensation as debut album VII reached number three in the French charts in 2018. One of ten siblings from a Congolese family, Marcel Junior Loutarilla (born on April 3, 2000) grew up in the neighborhood of Évry on the Essonne River and his cousin, now manager, Deuspi introduced him to rappers such as LMC Click and Mossda, before the swampy, menacing, Chicago drill sound perfected by Chief Keef made its way to Europe in 2017. It was a huge influence on Loutarilla, who started out with his crew Seven Binks and filled his rhymes with comic barbs and soccer references and began gaining attention when he posted a series of freestyles entitled Ténébreux to YouTube. Def Jam spotted his talent and quickly signed him up, and soon his tracks “Train de vie” and “La C” were notching up tens of millions of streams and reached the Top Ten of the French singles charts. Taking his rap name from an aggressive, human-hating character in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the bleak realism of the television series The Wire also had a profound effect on his content, and his album VII was credited with dragging French hip-hop into exciting new territory. Inspired by the French title of Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, the platinum-winning L’Affranchi (2019) solidified Loutilla’s status as a groundbreaking force in the Gallic rap scene and featured guest appearances by Niska (“RR 9.1”), Maes (“Matin”), and Ninho (“Quotidien”). The album proved hugely successful and was followed by a deluxe version released in September 2019 that earned platinum certification a few months later. Preceded by the single “Coffre plein,” which climbed to Number 2 on SNEP’s streaming charts, Détail saw the light in 2020 and sold over 16,000 copies only a week after its release. Following the release of the single “Daddy chocolat” with Gazo, Koba LaD delivered his first-ever mixtape, Cartel Vol. 1, in 2021. Featuring appearances by Laylow, Frenetik, Gianni, Oboy, and Landy, the mixtape quickly made its way to the Top 10 in the French Albums Chart.

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