Audio By Carbonatix
Finding true love has never been easy. These days though, some would say dating has never been more treacherous. But for Pleasant Grove’s favorite bus-riding rapper, $kaduf Français, finding the one was as simple as posting one of his music videos to YouTube. And now, over a year later, he’s hoping to crowdfund their first real date.
Early last year, $kaduf was sifting through comments after posting a music video online when feedback from a pretty young woman in France named Bella caught his eye. “I was like, ‘Dang, who the hell is this? She’s kinda cute.’ I messaged her and it happened from there.”
The “it” he’s referring to is a year-long meeting of the minds. He says that Bella, a musician in her own right, is someone on his creative and emotional level. “She’s a cool-ass person,” he gushes. “When we talk, we don’t have normal conversations, we get into deep conversations.”
Bella’s influence in the self-proclaimed Francophile’s life has encouraged him to not only learn French, but to also rap in the romance language.
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Following last November’s terrorist attacks in Paris, $kaduf was set to perform at the Underpass. He unloaded a then-unreleased track, completely in French, on his unsuspecting audience. “I changed my whole style of rapping based on the support,” he says. “It’s not like the typical $kaduf when y’all first heard me; it’s more mature, grown up.” And yes, some of it will be in French.
He says his goal is to get to Paris for Bella’s birthday in July, but he also is hoping to meet with some French record labels. From there, it’s all up in the air, but he’s not ruling out anything — including becoming a permanent resident. “I stay in Mesquite now and they’ve got this little, ugly-ass tower that kind of looks like the Eiffel Tower,” he says. “And I’m like, I’m going to make it there one day.”
Lately, it seems as if $kaduf is doing everything he can to prepare us for his departure. This past January he released not one, but two projects, the Unpleasant Grove LP and the Free Français EP, the latter of which contains three tracks, all bearing French titles and exuding a more developed and alluring side to the soft-spoken rapper. Looking to the future though, $kaduf’s been working on completing his debut, full-length album, Bonjour La France, which is slated to be released this December and, according to $kaduf, was inspired by everything from Drake’s track “Hotline Bling” to pop-punk rockers A Day To Remember.
But at the heart of it all, $kaduf is focused on one thing: getting to Paris to finally meet his soulmate, Bella. He admits he’s been slacking on his French lessons, but with modern conveniences like FaceTime and text messages, Bella’s been able to help out in that arena. “She’s like my other half,” he says. “It’s all going the way I planned it. So, hopefully I’ll pop up there for her birthday and it’ll be clean.”