Vincenzo

A vital part of one of the most successful French hip-hop acts of all time, rapper Vincenzo took 17 years to follow in the footsteps of his bandmates and embark on a solo career. Born Illiassa Issilame in Comoros but raised in the northern suburbs of Marseille, he founded the hip-hop collective Psy 4 de la Rime with cousins Soprano and Segnor Alonzo and Moroccan-born Sya Styles in 1995. While achieving success with 2002's Block Party, 2005's Enfants de la Lune, and 2008's number one Les Cités d'Or, several members simultaneously pursued various solo projects, but Vincenzo restricted himself to three installments of a mixtape series entitled Vues des Blocks until he finally released his full-length studio debut album, La Matrice, in 2012. ~ Jon O'Brien