

A pillar of the Quebec City rap scene since the early 2000s, Souldia has channelled his hard-knock life—which included a three-year stint in prison—into vivid, unflinching dispatches from La Belle Province’s meanest streets. Modern hip-hop doesn’t get much bleaker than “Condamné” (from 2014’s Krime grave), a vindictive screed delivered with a growling menace, gothic gravitas, and trap beats that jab like shivs. But by 2018’s Survivant, his rugged delivery was betraying a more vulnerable side on the tropical romancer “Valentina” and the mournful, piano-laced statement of resilience “Le bonheur des autres.”