WOMAD

Baloji

From Belgium, Congo Dem. Rep.

Baloji, the sorcerer of words returns

Baloji, whose name means "sorcerer" in Swahili, was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1978. At the age of 4, he arrived in Belgium with his father and grew up in Liège. As a young adolescent, he discovered hip-hop, a passion for tagging, rap & dance. At 15 he joined the collective Starflam, a figurehead of Belgian hip-hop, who released a platinum selling disc "Survivant" (2001). BALOJI quit the group in 2004 after a number of interpersonal disagreements and turned his back on music. It was a letter from his mother, whom he had not seen since 1981, and winning a poetry competition in Paris, that pushed him back to persue the muse of music. His first solo recording, "Hotel Impala" (2008), as much of a response to the letter from his mother as it was a quest to find his identity, is coloured with influences of soul, afrobeat, and hip-hop. A certified Gold Record, the album won two Octaves de la music (a Belgian equivalant to the Grammys) as well as the Rapsat-Lelièvre Prize and the Brassens prize for lyric writing.

www.crammed.be
(Biography supplied by artist management 2011)

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