Confused in the rap game : rapper Koba LaD and three people are on trial this Thursday by the criminal court of Melun (Seine-et-Marne). The artist with three million subscribers on YouTube is suspected of having kidnapped and beaten up his historic manager, Marvin I. known as “Deuspi”, whom he accuses of having defrauded him.
“My client was traumatized”
The facts date back to April 18, 2022. In the early morning, after a Koba LaD concert in Lille, a group of masked men showed up with “Deuspi” in blood at the accommodation he occupied with his partner in Vert-Saint-Denis , a commune in the agglomeration of Melun. After several hours of confinement of “Deuspi”, with his brother and his partner, the criminals left, destroying and pillaging the home, taking away every object of value.
“My client was traumatized, he fears for his life and feels in great danger. He hopes that this trial will put an end to the trivialization of all forms of violence in the world of rap,” declared “Deuspi” lawyer, M.e Jonathan Bellaiche. “My client was the victim of kidnapping, theft and damage for seven hours, at her home by seven attackers, including the artist Koba LaD who was her friend,” regretted for her part Me Mary Krief, his partner's lawyer. Koda LaD's defense did not wish to comment.
“They were fucking me from the start”
Well known to the courts, the 24-year-old artist, originally from a popular city of Évry (Essonne), is being prosecuted for kidnapping and violent theft against his mentor, to force him to repay money that he he suspects him of having misappropriated and broken their contractual ties.
Marcel Junior Loutarila, his real name, accuses his manager of having defrauded him of several hundred thousand euros and filed a complaint against him after his arrest by the police in the kidnapping case. The investigation into this financial aspect is still ongoing. “When I look at the contracts, when I look at the files, when I look at that, I say to myself that in fact from the beginning they were screwing me,” Koba LaD told last year on Canal+, at the release from a previous stay in prison.
Already behind bars
Coming free to the October 2023 hearing, during which this case was initially to be judged, the rapper will appear this time inside the detainee box. Because in the meantime, he was indicted and imprisoned in mid-September for manslaughter in Val-de-Marne, accused of having caused the death of his stylist friend in a road accident while he was driving under the influence of narcotics.
A criminal record as extensive as his musical career
Expelled from school in second grade, revealed by his music at only 18 years old and performing in duets with rap heavyweights (Ninho, Gazo, Niska…), Koba LaD makes no secret of his raw lyrics from his links with drug trafficking. His stage name was inspired by the monkey Koba in the film Planet of the Apes while “LaD” refers to “the detail” or “the high”, namely drug trafficking.
Son premier album VIIin reference to the number of his tower in Évry, made him known to the general public in 2018. Today, the rapper has three certified platinum albums, more than three million subscribers on YouTube and his relationship with the singer of RnB Wejdene is panicking social networks.
But his criminal record is as extensive as his young musical career. At the end of September, he was sentenced in Paris to two years in prison, one of which was closed for violence in a nightclub. In 2020, he received a three-month suspended prison sentence in Marseille for a car accident after which he fled.
