Mokobé

Mokobé — Biography

Mokobé Traoré, better known by his stage name Mokobé, is a French rapper, singer and actor of Malian descent, born on 24 May 1976 in the Val-de-Marne area southeast of Paris. He holds both French and Malian nationality; his father had Malian-Senegalese roots and his mother Malian-Mauritanian ones. French-language sources list his birthplace as Saint-Maurice, while other sources give Vitry-sur-Seine; a few English references cite 1980 as his birth year, although 1976 is far more commonly reported.

His fame is grounded above all in 113, the rap group he founded together with Rim'K and AP, which was also active within Mafia K'1 Fry, one of the most influential collectives in French hip-hop. In addition to appearing on the group's shared albums and performing live, Mokobé handled its media presence — press relations, interviews, music videos and DVD releases — and over time effectively became the band's manager.

He turned to a solo career in the middle of the 2000s. His first personal album, Mon Afrique, came out in 2007, after earlier collaborations with guest artists on tracks like Safari and C'est dans la joie; the single Ancrée à ton port followed in 2008.

His second album, Africa Forever, was released in 2011. In the years that followed he put out a steady run of singles, among them Oulala and Logobitombo Remix (Corde à sauter) (2011), Diguirindi, Africa and Happy Birthday (2012), Banana & Punta Cana (2013), CDouxDeh (2014), Wesh (#TuMeDisDesWesh) (2015), J'ai trop dansé (2016), Femme africaine (2017) and Heetch (2021). In 2023 he returned to the spotlight with Carré, a duet recorded with Fally Ipupa.

Besides his music, Mokobé has built a screen career, appearing in Sheitan (2006), Neuilly sa mère! (2009), Beur sur la ville (2011) and Le crocodile du Botswanga (2014).