SOOLKING

Soolking, born Abderraouf Derradji on 10 December 1989 in a northern suburb of Algiers, grew up as the son of a percussionist and discovered music and dance early on — working as an acrobat and drumming in a rock band before discovering rappers like 2Pac and Booba. He first moved to France in 2008 but returned to Algeria to join the rap group Africa Jungle, releasing two albums with them. Settling permanently in Paris in 2014, he launched his solo career in 2016 under the name Soolking. Rapper Sofiane signed him to his independent label Affranchis Music, which struck a deal with Capitol France in 2018. His breakthrough came with the viral freestyle "Guérilla" on radio show Planète Rap — a song about his life as an undocumented immigrant — which garnered over 300 million YouTube views and achieved Diamond certification in France. His debut album *Fruit du démon* (November 2018) went Platinum and produced multiple chart hits. The follow-up *Vintage* (2020), featuring Dadju and MERO, reached the Top 10 in France and Belgium. In 2023, "Casanova" feat. Gazo spent seven consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the French singles chart with over 130 million streams worldwide. His music fuses French rap, R&B, reggaeton, and Algerian raï into a distinctive, multilingual sound.