K!RA OJI

Born in Angoulême in 2001, K!RA OJI – from his real name is Antoine Poireau — left France as a kid, long before he found his true calling. He initially landed on Montreal’s South Shore in his early teens with ambitions of becoming a professional gemstone researcher, but he had no idea that his path would lead him to music instead. A mini-adult who enjoyed hanging out with grown-ups more than with people his own age, he soon enough discovered that he could make people laugh and react. Well aware of the effect his words and expressions had on people, it is by clowning around that he drew attention to himself as well as trouble. Years have passed and the oppositional kid has grown older without ever losing his ability to take over the space.  

Inspired by Orelsan, Nekfeu, Guizmo and XXXtentacion, he has been refining his rap for the last few years. Reactive to injustices and prone to passionate impulses, he now finds in music a safe space to encapsulate all his human states and a place where he can pause for a moment. With fierceness in the act, he thinks of writing as a solid purge, as a way to make the most out of hatred and anger. Negative thoughts are destructive by definition, he says, and it’s by speaking up that he manages to turn them around for the best.   

Feeling like he truly belongs for the first time, it is with his partner in crime, producer DJ Kleancut, that the artist worked in the studio on his debut EP “Protagoniste”, released in April 2022. 

HIGHLIGHTS

Showcase at Festival International de la chanson de Granby, EP launch at Quai des brumes, Midis à la carte at Jardins Gamelin, participation to Star Académie 2021 TV auditions