Shaka Famoudou Brown born November 7, 1992, is the eldest son of Elsa Sepulveda ( Portuguese ) and George Brown ( American ). He was raised in Malakoff- district 92, a commune in the southwest of Paris, France but known as the French Projects to locals. Being the son of the renowned Parisian Drummer George Brown, his love of “the arts” started at a young age. He began dancing at the age of 10 and by age 12 he started recording songs with his best friend Gaultier “Wald3n” Nicar, “I have always wanted to sing but I knew I had no vocal skills so, one day I decided to throw 8 bars of rap on one of Wald3n’s songs. It was terrible but I decided then that that’s what I would start doing”. But, two years later in 2007, with the impending death of his father he abruptly stopped dancing and rapping. His father’s passing underscored his spiral downturn where he underwent a difficult period in his life. He joined a gang, was arrested 9 times within a span of 3 months and at 16 was charged with carrying 3 concealed weapons in a public environement. He eventually dropped out of school after a close encounter with rival gang members, “I was at a city festival and they put a gun to my face, I ducked and that was it, I knew I had to get out”.
Shaka left France, his mother and younger brother at age 17 for the states and ended up for a brief stint in San Francisco, “Leaving my family was hard no doubt but it’s something I felt I had to do at the time”. When asked about his younger brother Onilu, there is a pause and a smirk, “ We are real close, he is a big part of my life. He has always supported me”. Soon after, he moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan the birthplace of his father, where he started rapping again and honing his craft. Shaka sold his mixtapes on street corners for 3 dollars and after 3 months with the help of his older brother Geff and Sid Da Kid- a Detroit native who is featured on the mix-tape. He later moved to Atlanta to peruse his “Mission”.
When he was younger his influences were Eminem, a French rapper by the name of Booba and the group Sniper. As he was coming of age and started taking rap more seriously he began listening to Tyga, Ace Hood, Pharrell, B.O.B. and Future. He has been overheard saying how much he likes Drake, but admits, ” I don’t listen to him much because I don’t want to be too influenced by him, I don’t want to start sounding like him”. Shaka’s biggest and most influential musical role model is his father, “ My drive and my ambition come from my Daddy. He would always tell me, c’est la vie with the thickest American accent, it means -that’s life in French. And when I would ask him anything about music he would always say, music takes a lifetime to learn”.
Shaka is currently on a “Mission” and is working on his debut mix-tape entitled, “Frenglish”.
~A. Mitchell, The Reader’s Perspective
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