Yamê

There are many reasons why Yamê is so distinctive. These include two things that the French-Cameroonian singer and rapper is actually missing: his upper front teeth, which he lost when he fell from a building as a boy. Somehow their absence is hardly discernible thanks to the power of his voice and the dexterity of his flow on songs that combine aspects of jazz, soul and traditional chanson with harder-hitting elements of American trap and drill. Born Emmanuel Sow in the French town of Cergy-Pontoise in 1993, Yamê grew up surrounded by music and instruments thanks to his father, the Cameroonian-Senegalese musician M’backé Ngoup'Emanty. After building buzz with online mixtapes like 2020's Bantu Mixtape, Vol. 1 and snippets of covers of Charles Aznavour and Nina Simone, Yamê broke through with the 2023 release of his debut album, ELOWI, a beguiling set on which he pushed French hip-hop in new directions while making it all seem effortless.