Belgian musician Baloji returns to native home DRC

With jackets, hats, boas and shirts soaked with sweat, Belgian rapper, MC and hip hop artist, Baloji performs after returning to native Congo, a country that haunts his musical universe.

The MC has to prove himself to young people from Kinshasa, who came mainly for an urban music festival featuring local rappers.

The crowds go wild as he performs with guitarist Dizzy Mandjeku, a living legend of Congolese rumba that connects the rapper to Papa Wemba’s legacy.

My music has given me the chance to travel. It's thanks to the image actually. I work hard on my image because it allowed me to come out of what I can call a straitjacket. I do not like to talk like that of the Francophone. But yes, now I can do festivals and in the winter I host cultural centers.

The day after the concert, the artist runs behind the camera on the busy Boulevard “24”, for the shooting of the song “Spitting fire, fetishes and fanfare”. The recording is full of energy inventiveness, just like its natural setting and its director

Baloji, meaning “sorcerer” in Swahili, was thrown on the roads of exile in Belgium. Born out of wedlock and separated from his mother by his father, he heals the wounds of the past with music. He speaks how it has enabled his success abroad.

The artist addresses the troubles of his childhood on albums Impala Hotel and 137 Boulevard.