Vald

Born in 1992 in Aulnay-sous-Bois, Seine-Saint-Denis, Valentin Le Du, aka Vald, made his mark on French rap in the early 2010s with a series of tracks released online, followed by EPs that established his offbeat, deliberately absurd universe. The NQNT project in 2014, followed by NQNT 2 in 2015, brought him national attention and paved the way for a first studio album, Agartha, released in 2017, where melodic trap, cloud-rap influences, and more introspective passages mingle. XEU in 2018 and then Ce monde est cruel in 2019 continued this writing built on wordplay, provocative imagery, and everyday references, with a marked contrast between dark humor and existential themes. In parallel, the rapper founded the label Echelon Records, around which a network of collaborations with other artists of the new generation took shape. With the album V, released in 2022, he continued to explore a dense and often self-referential rap, alternating technical tracks, sung hooks, and more electronic experimentation, on record as well as on stage, mainly in France and across the French-speaking world.