Smarty
A major figure in Burkinabe rap, winner of the 2013 RFI Discovery Prize and triple Kundé d'Or, Smarty makes rimmer powerful flow and commitment, from the Yeleen adventure to his album ÉLÉVATION.
Born Salif Louis Kiekieta in 1978 in Dimbokro, Côte d'Ivoire, and raised in Burkina Faso, Smarty co-founded the Yeleen duo with Mawndoé in 2000. The band became a reference for Burkina Faso rap, published five albums and won the Kundé d'Or of the best band in 2007, before the 2011 breakup.
In solo, he published Afrikan Kouleurs (2012), with Soprano and Tiken Jah Fakoly as guests; his title "The Chef's Hat" became an iconic anthem and received the Kundé of the best clip in 2013, the year he won the RFI Discovery Prize. He won the Kundé d'Or solo in 2017, and again in 2023 — an edition where he offered the entire envelope of his prize, 1,500,000 FCFA, to internally displaced persons.
UNICEF's national goodwill ambassador to Burkina Faso, he founded his Beewane brand in 2020 and published the album Odyssey in 2021. In 2025, he released the album ÉLÉVATION, was the lead of FEMUA 17 in Abidjan and performed for the first time on the stage of the Casino de Paris.