Background
He was born to a Congolese father and a Senegalese mother. His father was a musician and Congo-Kinshasa political figure Tabu Ley Rochereau.
He was born to a Congolese father and a Senegalese mother. His father was a musician and Congo-Kinshasa political figure Tabu Ley Rochereau.
He finished his French baccaleureat at Académie de Versailles with high grades and continued with Cultural Mediation, Communication at Roanne and Louisiana Guillotière.
After passing his childhood in Congo-Kinshasa, at the age of 10, he moved to France to live with relatives in Beziers, then Osny, Cergy and Sartrouville. After obtaining his master"s degree, he consecrated himself to music He first formed Frères Lumières trio with two other friends.
They released a maxi single.
He was also involved in many musical projects including the album Tendance by the band Bana Kin (with Sinistre Kozi Philo and Mic genie). His own street Digital Video Disc was released at end of 2005 as Eternel Recommencement followed in 2006 and was signed to Hostile record label.
After working with a number of renowned rappers, he released his debut studio album in March 2007 titled À chaque frère ("To Every Brother") containing collaborations from Diam"s, Kool Shen, South"Pi and Mike Génie. His second album came out in Octobre 2009 called Sur les chemins du retour ("On the Ways of Return") and an international tour.
In preparation of his third album, he also released a downloadable Digi-tape En noir et blanc - En attendant Noir Désir ("Black & White, Waiting for Black Desire") where he included some remixes of the album.
He took part as songwriting teacher at the French reality television program Popstars. In 2009, French journalist Éric Zemmour opened a lawsuit against him accusing him of public threats for diabolizing the banlieues. Youssoupha responded in an interview with Le Parisien that he advocated non-violence, but was pointing out the contradictions of Zemmour.
He also responded with his single "Menace de mort" (meaning Death threat in English) with clips from various television programs quoting anti-immigrant sentiments expressed by media figures.