Blakkayo-Confians (04:09)

Jean Clario Gateaux aka Blakkayo was born in 1978 in the town of Goodlands on Mauritius. He started off as a dancer in the 1990s, but was quickly drawn to music, and in particular reggae. It was through listening to Kaya, the well-known Mauritian musician and inventor of seggae (a fusion of sega and reggae) who died in 1999, that the young man realised he could use music to put his massages across. He rapidly wrote his own lyrics and developed a freestyle art.

His first solo album, Tchek to life dates from 2000. It was a revolutionary cry released a year after the riots that shook the island, and was a great success for Blakkayo. The following year, the musician and his group, later named the Otentikk Street Brothers (OSB crew), brought out an album entitled NNou Kkila, in which the group sang a vibrant tribute to the tutelary figure of Kaya.

With his second album Xterminator, released in 2003, Blakkayo struck a tone of denunciation, even rage, in the face of the inequalities and ills of Mauritian society, with a undertone of hope that things might change. The following year, it was OSB’s turn to bring out a new album, Revey toi ("wake up"), a musical campaign to promote Mauritian Creole.

As well as frequently participating in festivals, Blakkayo along with OSB tried to make it big internationally with their last album. “Activist” in every sense of the term, in 2006 he was at the head of a group of young musicians, Solda Kaz Bad.

Blakkayo - Kone dir non (03:34)

Love N respect is the most recent album by the Mauritian reggae man. It is his first solo production for 6 years, and the style is calmer: less dancehall and more reggae, and overall more mature. Blakkayo now puts himself forward as a man who has gleaned wisdom, even though he has not given up the fight, and will always be committed to the cause.

Blakkayo on MySpace