The country I’m exploring in my blog posts is Madagascar. One of the first artists that popped up was a rapper named OBOY, that is his stage name at least, a nod to the character “O-Dog” from the 1993 film ‘Menace to Society’. His real name is Mihaja Ramiarinarivo, he is a 27 year old rapper born in Madagascar and raised in the suburbs of Paris. He was introduced to music by his father who played him artists like Bob Marley, Michael Jackson and Tupac. He formed a music collective with his friends called “Way Boto” at 17 and that led to him recording his first EP “Olyside” followed by another EP “Southside” and in July 2019 his full length album “Omega was released. His second album “No Crari” charted at number 3 on the French album charts in 2021 and his single “TDB” sat at the number one spot on the French singles chart for 3 weeks and received over 68 million streams in 3 months and earned platinum status after receiving 50 million streams and the music video has racked up over 80 million views on YouTube. OBOY’s style of rap is considered “trap” or “mumble” rap and he lists A$AP Rocky and The Migos as his top influences which is apparent when you listen to his music or watch his visuals they can be very fun, bright and upbeat like The Migos while some of his other visuals and sounds are a bit more somber and dark like A$AP Rocky. It feels like OBOY is very in control of his image and his music, you can tell that he plays a big role in how he’s being portrayed and it comes across as such in his music and visuals. I really enjoy his music and style and I guess much to my ignorance I had no idea that Malagasy people spoke French and I definitely have never heard of any music coming from this region. I will definitely be tuning into OBOY from here on out.