Di-Meh
| Di-Meh | |
|---|---|
| Born | Mehdi Belkaïd June 30, 1995 Geneva, Switzerland |
| Other names |
|
| 💼 Occupation | Rapper |
| 📆 Years active | 2011-present |
Di-Meh (born Mehdi Belkaïd; June 30, 1995), is an Algerian Swiss rapper. Born in Geneva, Switzerland, he is considered the principal representative of French Swiss rap, and some would argue Swiss rap in general, when included with his acolytes who form the Genevan Superwak Clique: Makala, Slimka and Varnish la Piscine.
He usually releases his projects on May 10th, as his stage name "Di-Meh" is similar to the French "dix mai" (May 10th), though he discontinued this trend with the release of his first album, Mektoub, on May 14th, 2021.
Life
His father moved from Algeria to Geneva in 1987, seeking to try his hand at soccer before later going into foodservice, first worked with Di-Meh's mother at various hotels. He was very passionate from a young age about skateboarding, spending lots of time at the Plainpalais skatepark in Geneva and makes numerous references to it in his lyrics. He credits skateboard culture with his introduction to rap music. As a teenager, he travelled to Paris and while there met many Parisian rap groups such as the members of the 75ème Session, 1995, Panama Bende, as well as various new-wave Belgian rappers, who helped Di-Meh direct his first projects and invited him to feature in their songs. Between 2013 and 2016 he released 5 EPs and in 2014 founded the Superwak Clique with fellow Genevan hip-hop artists, such as Makala, Slimka, DeWolph, Varnish La Piscine and Rico TK.
In January 2017, he released the single "Focus" which brought him to prominence in the Swiss rap scene. The single was the first song off of his mixtape Focus, Vol. 1, that came out in May 2017, produced by the Genevan music label ColorsxStudios. This mixtape reached the top 40s on the Schweizer Hitparade in its first week after release. In 2018, he released Focus, Vol. 2. It was largely seen as successful as it made it into the top 200 in France. The following year, he released his mixtape Fake Love named after its eponymous single. In March 2019, he was diagnosed with polyps on his vocal chords and stated "They operated on me and said I can't talk for a month and a half. I went over it with a logopedist. I had a higher pitched-voice after a little, my timbre changed. There's gonna be a before and after."
On May 14, 2021, as confirmed in an episode of the YouTube series Rap Jeu hosted by Mehdi Maizi, he released his first album, Mektoub. To further develop his inspiration for the album, he had gone two years without releasing any music so he could focus on getting back in touch with his roots and Algerian-Moroccan ancestry. Mektoub is an homage to the restaurant his father and uncle owned, the place where Di-Meh first learned to appreciate music and where he says he recognized how much his parents loved him. He first hinted at his album on April 8th, with the release of a single off of the album, "4x4 diplomatique" accompanied by a clip directed by an artist Di-Meh holds in high esteem for his visual directing work, Leon Santana. After this he released the track list on April 15th, that showed some artists were featured on the album such as Lefa, Vladimir Cauchemar, and Klench Poko. He also did an interview about his love for skateboarding to further promote the album.
Discography
Albums
- Mektoub (2021)
EPs
- Comme sur des roulettes (2013)
- Reste calme (2014)
- Dimeh Hendrix (2015)
- Entre le rap et la vraie vie (2015)
- Shine (2016)
Mixtapes
- Focus, Vol. 1 (2017)
- Focus, Vol. 2 (2018)
- Fake Love (2019)
Singles
- Depeche Mode(feat. Makala & Slimka) (2018)
- Personnel (2018)
- Fake Love (2019)
- Jeunesse (2019)
- Big Foot (feat. Daejmiy) (2019)
- Denzel (2020)
- 4x4 Diplomatique (2021)
References
This article "Di-Meh" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Di-Meh. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
