March 27, 2020
Disques 7ième Ciel
Originally from Quebec City, Kevin St-Laurent became Souldia when he was only 15 years old. Accompanied by Infrak, he formed the Mafia 03 group that became the Facekche trio. The 2 partners take pleasure in depicting the crime that surrounds them, the street, the system that oppresses them and the rage of Quebec City's underprivileged neighborhoods. The flame fizzled as they formed Collective 187 with other accomplices, such as Die-on, Crazy8 and Dangerous. Many of their titles like''Infraktion'',''Maudit'',''Chek ton dos'' and many others quickly become number 1 in terms of street rap reference in the old capital. The province's promoters are fighting for the collective! They then perform multiple concerts, even if they didn't have albums on the shelves yet. In 2009, the rapper presented us his first solo album ''Art Kontrol''. Souldia sings in large sold-out venues and this is only the beginning! Following a signature at Explicit Productions, Souldia is back in full force with his band Facekche and the albums "Le visage de l'ombre" (2012), "Le retour de la bete" (2013) and "Les poetes maudits" (2015) are hits. But the success doesn't stop there! In the meantime, Souldia delivers ''Double tranchant'' (2011) in collaboration with rapper Saye as well as 2 solo albums ''Les origines du mal'' (2012) and ''Krime Grave'' (2014). In 2016, he offered us the little jewel ''Amsterdam'' with Rymz. This album ends up number 1 in sales in Quebec and his latest solo album ''Sacrifice'' has quickly become a must for Rap in Quebec. Going through his most prolific period, Souldia is back with his dark ideas on ''Ad Vitam Aeternam'' (2017), a fifth solo album in his career. "Survivant" (2018) sums up the impossible, the victory after crossing the paths of death. These are the writings of a survivor of a long and hard adventure, who takes stock of his life. With more than 5 000 albums sold and more than 15 million streams, "Survivant" has significant media coverage and is acclaimed by big names such as Le VOIR, Le Journal de Quebec, Le Journal de Montreal and many others. According to ZONERAP's charts, Souldia is named ''Rap Franco Artist of the Year 2018'' and ''Survivant'' is the ''Rap Album of the Year 2018''. With ''Survivant'', Souldia is nominated for ADISQ 2019 for ''Album of the Year - Rap'' as well as ''Album of the Year - Best Seller''. In addition, he received the TELUS scholarship, voted by the public, for ''My first nomination'' at the ADISQ 2019 Gala. In 2019, the Quebec rapper performed more than thirty shows, half of them were sold out, in addition to participating in other artists' shows. He also found himself performing at ADISQ in the opening issue next to Koriass, FouKi, Sarahmee and Loud in addition of having the honor of opening Sinik's show at La Cigale in Paris. In spring 2020, Souldia will take Quebec by storm with his album "Backstage". The beast of rap Queb presents us with a new high-light project. This album is nothing more than a backstage VIP pass. A glimpse of the man behind the beast, written by a lyricist without filters. Souldia, master of ceremonies, shares a new chapter in her life and takes us on a trip back in time on melodies from the future. Several notable collaborations are found on this album: Loud, Seth Gueko, Sinik, Rick Pagano, Eli Rose, FouKi, Eman, White-B, Sozi, Tizzo. "Backstage" album is full of surprises and will undoubtedly be a staple of the rap Queb. So far, several singles accompanied by music videos are mouthwatering for the album to come on April 3 2020: "Melomane", "Barillet", "Every-Day" (feat. White-B), "Nouveau Soleil" (Feat. Eman, FouKi) as well as "Rouge neige" (feat. Seth Gueko, Sinik, Rick Pagano). The latest single / video, "Snow Red" (feat. Seth Gueko, Sinik, Rick Pagano), garnered more than 100,000 views in just 3 days and has now reached more than 135,000 views on YouTube. The single has risen to the top of playlists on Spotify (Rap queb, Nouveautes de la semaine Canada, Lyriciste), on Apple Music ( Nouveautes du jour) and on Amazon Music (Rap du moment, Nouveautes). Nowadays, Souldia has more than 64 000 subscribers on Facebook and more than 41 000 subscribers on Instagram, not to mention that all his music videos have been viewed more than 17 400 000 times on YouTube. Souldia and Loud come together to offer us a real earworm. This collaboration on the new single "Reve de jeunesse" will undoubtedly be a flagship piece of Quebec rap. Tracing their evolution from the time of their respective youths to the culmination of their careers, the two rappers tell us how their dreams came true.