2023-09-06 21:44:20
This Wednesday, the third day of the trial of rapper MHD and 8 co-accused for a murder in a settling of scores with a rival gang was devoted to the personality investigation of the artist.
This is not the first time that MHD’s life has come under scrutiny. But this time, it was an assize court that dissected it. This Wednesday, the third day of the trial of the rapper and eight co-defendants for a murder in a settling of scores with a rival gang was devoted to the personality investigation of the artist, whose real name is Mohammed Sylla.
Since Monday, nine men – including one on the run – have been tried for the 2018 murder of Loïc K., a collateral victim of rivalries between gangs in the city of Grange-aux-Belles (10th arrondissement of Paris) and that of Chaufourniers , nicknamed the “red city (19th). The 23-year-old young man was deliberately hit by a Mercedes – identified as belonging to the rapper – then beaten to death in the 10th arrondissement, on the night of July 5 to 6, 2018.
In this case, several witnesses implicated the artist, originally from Chaufourniers, claiming that he was among the individuals who lynched the victim to death. Investigators have also established that the Mercedes that deliberately hit Loïc K. belonged to him. From the start, MHD disputed the facts, ensuring in particular that he regularly lent his car to those around him.
A “smooth” course
When the hearing resumed, this Wednesday followingnoon, it was a personality investigator who came forward first at the bar of the Voltaire room, full to bursting. For almost an hour, in sweltering heat, despite the few open windows and the four fans, she detailed the life course of the rapper, whom she met in 2019 at the prison of Health in Paris. If the young man was “cooperative”, he showed a “certain modesty” regarding his love life, according to her.
Born in La Roche-sur-Yon, in Vendée, MHD arrived in Paris at the age of three, with his parents, two brothers and two sisters. The family is “united, close-knit and joyful”, she explains. As a teenager, Mohammed Sylla is “calm”, “shy”, “homebody”, he prefers “video games” to outings”. At school, he is “rather serious”, his curriculum is “classic” and his “correct results.” The college student did not complete his schooling and embarked on a BEP in the kitchen, from which he graduated in 2012. For three years, he worked “for various fast food brands”.
But the young man has “always had an interest in music”. “From 2010, he began to write texts but remained discreet for fear of disappointing his parents”, she says once more. In 2015, it was a simple video posted on social networks, viewed several million times, that launched his career. Barely twenty years old at the time, the young man signed with the famous record company Warner and released, in 2016, his first album, “an international success”. From that moment, he became the self-proclaimed inventor of “Afrotrap”, a mixture of rap and African music. “It changes his daily life, but he remains someone simple”, continues the investigator.
“Mohammed Sylla presents a smooth journey, without any particular event, except his artistic career”, she gives in conclusion.
“Is he trying to give himself a good image or, conversely, to hide something?” Then asks the president. “What I mean is that there are no notable elements in his career, no drama in his life, a classic schooling”, then replies the personality investigator.
“In six months, his life has completely changed”
A few minutes later, it was the turn of its producer, Adel Kaddar, to take the helm. The 41-year-old man, beige polo shirt, black pants and small round glasses, explains that he discovered the young prodigy in 2015, with this famous video. Artistic director at Warner, he contacts him. Because with his style, the famous “Afrotrap”, MHD offers “something very new, very original, which was unlike anything else”, says the producer.
“In six months, his life has completely changed, he went from pizza delivery to international star. But he managed it very intelligently,” continues Adel Kaddar.
But between the promotion, the tour and the collaborations, the pace is frantic. So much so that in 2018, they “had to spend only 30 or 40 days in Paris”, he describes. On January 15, 2019, everything came to a halt. MHD is arrested and taken into custody. “The day he was arrested, we were all together preparing for a concert in Amsterdam. We didn’t know if he was going to come out or not,” says the producer. Then everything has to be put on hold.
During his detention, the man, who says he is “close” to him, goes to see him several times, makes the link with his family. When he leaves, he even offers to put him up in his second home in Montpellier. If since then, the rapper has released his third album, Mansa, and several titles this summer, he is “no longer invited” to festivals in France.
“We had a lot of proposals from abroad, but our requests to leave the territory were refused with his judicial review. In France, nothing, he is considered guilty”, regrets the producer.
The man also rubbed shoulders with him between the facts and his arrest. “Do you remember a detail?” Asks MHD’s lawyer, Me Elise Arfi. “He came to see me telling me that there had been a problem with his car, that it had been found burnt out in the 19th arrondissement,” he says, adding that he told him to come forward himself. with the authorities.
“He lent his car a lot, it was a subject of contention between us. It worried me because his friends were not insured. I lectured him on it, but I am not his father”, continues Adel Kaddar.
“I felt very alone and isolated”
It took until past 6 p.m. to see the 28-year-old rapper, jeans, polo shirt and black sneakers, step forward to the bar. The president tries to understand the links that unite the rapper and his co-defendants. “It was the year of my success that we got closer”, he explains, in particular because his neighborhood friends, whom they consider today as his “friends”, participated in his clips , “without asking for remuneration”.
But why did you move to Neuilly-sur-Seine, far from his family, to whom he is so close, and from his friends, questions the president? “I wanted to have my independence”, he answers first, before adding: “I wanted to continue my life as a star in Neuilly-sur-Seine”. And for the Mercedes, it’s pretty much the same thing:
“It was for the kiff, we are still in this magical star world, I wanted a Mercedes, I had a Mercedes”, continues the rapper.
As for his incarceration, it was “a shock”. The rapper, who explains that he was not allowed visitors for several months, “felt very alone and isolated”. When he left, he wondered regarding the rest of his career: should he wait “for the trial to end to resume music?”. But a year later, he released a new song.
“In the media, I had already taken a big hit,” he says.
On several occasions during the hearing, one of the two lawyers for the civil party, Me Mathilde Robert, mentions a video published by the rapper on Snapchat, in September 2018, three days before the release of his second album. He explains that he wants to end his career. These statements, made just a few weeks following the murder of Loïc K, questions the lawyer. Earlier in the day, his producer, Adel Kaddar, had mentioned “a burn-out”. “It happens to all artists,” he replied.
“It was a period when I was tired, I was fed up with this lifestyle, of always being in the studio”, justifies MHD, once more questioned regarding this video.
“I received motivational messages. I still have contracts in progress, I work with people, even if I was tired, I still have commitments to honor”, adds the rapper, visibly annoyed .
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