The meteoric rise before the descent into hell. Self-proclaimed inventor of “afro-trap”, adored in France and abroad, the rapper MHD saw his meteoric career slowed down by a year and a half of pre-trial detention for his alleged involvement in a murder during a brawl between bands.
Mohamed Sylla, whose real name is 28, appears free today before the Paris Assize Court for intentional homicide, alongside eight other defendants. “I had projects that pay off, but the poto ruined everything (…) I had to fill my Bercy, sorry mom, I ruined everything”, he intones in Everything to spoil, on his third and last album Mansa released in 2021. Perhaps a reference to his car which was used to overthrow the victim at the start of the brawl in 2018, against the backdrop of a supposed settling of scores between rival gangs. A vehicle that he often lent, according to several actors in the case. Witnesses said they had formally identified MHD on the spot, the rapper has constantly denied it. After a year and a half of detention, in the summer of 2020, he was released under judicial supervision, banned from going to Paris, obliged to report to the police station each week and subject to a bail of 150,000 euros.
With his “afro-trap”, a mix of hip-hop and African music, everything went very quickly before this legal episode: more than 400,000 copies of his first album (MHD) in 2016 sold, on stage at the prestigious Coachella festival in California in 2018 alongside Beyoncé and Eminem, or even ambassador of the Puma brand. He even landed a first role in the cinema, that of a young accused of murder in My brother. Also in 2019, a new international tour awaits him with a gala evening at the Accor Arena (Bercy) in Paris. But he was imprisoned in January.
Since his release, he has remained productive since a new single, Jungle, was released on August 25. In the clip, we see him emerge unscathed from a car accident, with short hair and a goatee on his chin. He performed on the same date in a venue in Bordeaux for a mini-concert. With more than 50,000 sales, Mansa is now a gold record.
Born in Vendée, in a family of five children of parents of Senegalese and Guinean origins, he grew up in Paris. His second album, in 2018, is titled 19, in homage to the Parisian district where he lived. He first earns his living through odd jobs as a pizza delivery man. In 2015, a “freestyle” (improvisation) posted on social networks pointed this out. His life changed the following year: his hit Afro Trap Part.3 (Champions League), to the glory of PSG while he supported the Girondins de Bordeaux, was relayed by Parisian players.
He is living his “childhood dream”, as he confided to AFP during his visit to Washington in 2017 during a tour of the United States and Quebec. The rapper was even invited to the Elysée by François Hollande in 2017 to meet Guinean President Alpha Condé and by Emmanuel Macron in early 2018 on the occasion of a Francophonie day.
He met with equivalent success in Conakry, Guinea, where he was forced to cut short a concert in 2016 in front of too many audiences. The following year, he performed without incident in a stadium of more than 60,000 people. Consecrated by the international star system (Madonna made her son listen to his music and the Canadian rapper Drake borrowed a dance step from him), he was crowned by the press as the “Little Prince” of “afro-trap”.
Today, MHD is still followed by 2.6 million people on Instagram, listened to by nearly 4 million fans per month on Spotify, the queen platform for music streaming, and its clips have exceeded one billion cumulative views.
