Kid Francescoli

Born in Paris but raised in Marseille, which he still considers his hometown, Mathieu Hocine has been writing songs since he was a kid. When he decided to publically unveil his project in the early 2000’s, he chose the nickname Kid Francescoli, as a tribute to Enzo Francescoli, one of the stars of his beloved Olympique de Marseille football club. In the past decades, his city has had a strong influence on the development of rap music in France, but things are changing and Kid Francescoli is the perfect example. His music has a lot more to do with pop, electro, the French Touch movement, dream-pop and film soundtracks (especially Ennio Morricone’s works).

In 2009, when he was staying in New York for a while, he met an American singer, Julia Minkin. They fell in love and started playing music together as a duo, which led to the creation of Kid Francescoli’s third album, called With Julia (2014). Even though they have broken up, Julia remains his muse and their relationship has evolved into a creative friendship. After that, Mathieu started a side-project called Husbands, alongside members of French 79 and Oh! Tiger Mountain. He’s also a keen remixer (for NZCA Lines, Brisa Roché…) and his music has been selected for TV commercials by several famous brands (Chanel, Lanvin, Lacoste…). In 2017, Kid Francescoli released Play Me Again, a new album documenting the end of a love story and exploring interesting territories (hip-hop beats, reggae, R&B, lyrics in French…). Love affairs don’t always end badly.