Benny B

Under the name Benny B, Abdel Hamid Gharbaoui developed from the mid-1980s a career tied to Brussels’s early hip-hop scenes; he was born there in 1968 and grew up in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean. Initially active as a b-boy and rapper alongside his friend Perfect, Benny B took on new dimensions in 1987 with the arrival of Brussels DJ Daddy K, forming the trio BENNY-B. Their music belongs to the first generation of French-language rap, driven by hip-hop energy, very direct choruses and production shaped by the dance and pop culture of the turn of the 1990s. Benny B presented an accessible, rhythmic and upfront style, with tracks such as Vous êtes fous !, Qu’est-ce qu’on fait maintenant ? and Parce qu’on est jeune. The project’s studio discography notably includes L’album featuring Daddy K (1990) and Daddy K, Perfect et moi (1992). After the group slowed down in the mid-1990s, Benny B stepped away from music before occasionally returning to the stage from 2008 onward for reunions and tours focused on 1980s and 1990s repertoires. Benny B remains associated with this pioneering phase of francophone Belgian rap, at the crossroads of hip-hop, dance and the popular television culture of the time.