Gaël Faye

Born in 1982 in Bujumbura, Burundi, Gaël Faye has built a career spanning rap, chanson and writing, shaped by a dual French and Rwandan cultural background. He arrived in France in the mid-1990s and became involved in the francophone hip-hop scene, first gaining recognition as part of the duo Milk Coffee & Sugar with Edgar Sekloka; the duo released a self-titled album in 2010 that mixed rap, jazz and soul. From 2013 Gaël Faye pursued a solo career with the album “Pili Pili sur un croissant au beurre”, where African rhythms, urban sounds and melodies close to French chanson intersect. He refined that approach on “Rythmes & botanique” (2017) and “Lundi méchant” (2020), projects featuring often restrained rap—near spoken word—focused on storytelling, the intimate and the memory of exile. At the same time, Gaël Faye works as an author, notably with the novel “Petit pays” (2016), which nourishes a highly narrative musical writing attentive to everyday detail. On stage he performs with a band combining acoustic instruments and a hip-hop aesthetic, appearing in concert halls and at festivals in France, across Europe and on the African continent.