CELEBRATED FRENCH RAPPER Laouni Mouhid, commonly known by his stage name as La Fouine, will perform at the highly-anticipated second edition of AIC-MOCA festival slated from June 30 to July 3, in Kigali, organisers have confirmed.

La Fouine’s forthcoming concert in Kigali was confirmed just 24 hours after Congolese rapper Youssoupha cancelled his performance at the same festival.

Some assumed that the ‘La Meilleure’ hit maker was announced as a perfect replacement for Youssoupha but festival co-organiser Raoul Rugamba told The New Times that the two were both on the lineup of headliners that will perform during the festival.

 "We can't keep this to ourselves anymore! His classics like ‘Ma Meilleure’, ‘Quand Je Partirai’, and many more will be performed live in Kigali,” said Rugamba as he announced the rapper’s performance which takes place at Kigali Car Free Zone’s Imbuga City Walk.

La Fouine is the latest artiste announced to grace the festival’s stage as he joins the likes of Ivorian oupé-décalé band Magic System on the performance, which will also feature local artistes.

Tickets for a series of the concerts lineup during the festival are available via http://www.kigali-aic.le-moca.com/ for Rwf7, 000 for regular early birds tickets and Rwf10, 000 at the gates as well as Rwf20, 000 for VIPs.

AIC-MOCA festival is a joint project by Africa in Colors (AIC), a Rwandan-based art initiative represented by Raoul Rugamba, and Movement of Creatives Africas (MOCA), an initiative represented by Cameroonian art entrepreneur Alain Bidjeck.

The festival is expected to bring together creatives in music, visual arts, fashion, filmmaking and production, among others.

Organisers are putting in place masterclass workshops, conferences, tours, cultural exhibitions and B2B meetings, among other initiatives, on the festival agenda for creatives, local and international, to share experiences on how best they can turn their creatives into gold.

Who is La Fouine?

La Fouine, with additional aliases such as Fouiny Babe or just Fouiny, is a French-Moroccan rapper, singer-songwriter and record producer. He is owner of Banlieue Sale and clothing line "Street Swagg".

Born in Trappes in a family of seven children to Moroccan parents from Casablanca, La Fouine grew up outside Paris in the Yvelines.

He left school at the age of fifteen to devote himself to rap and took his first music lessons. La Fouine, who was called "Forcené" was an active member of the collective "GSP".

It was part of the short-lived group "FORS" with DJ RV (Hervé), Le Griffon (Tarek Medimegh) And LaylaD (Layla Melloni Forcé), created mainly to participate at 2 R puissance ART in La Verrière, where he won the second prize.

Since then, Laouni married, then divorced after becoming the father of a little girl, born in 2002, named Fatima, named after La Fouine's mother. His mother's death in 2005 inspired his song "Je regarde là-haut" He also experienced dark periods in foster homes and prisons.

"I was only fifteen when I was expelled from school and placed in foster homes. I became an insomniac most of the time. But it did not take me to sleep with me, if the cops were looking for me directly. I slept with people in cars, premises, etc…It was misery", he said to the magazine Planète Rap.