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Artist
Ismael Isaac
12+ albums
reggaeafricanKHIK
about
Ismaël Isaac, Kaba Diakité Issiaka in the civilian life, was born in Abidjan in 1966. His parents come from Ponodougou, sub-prefecture of Boundiali. They speak the Mandingo, one of the languages of the Mandingo kingdom, and are able to express in other dialects: malinké, Bambara, dioula... so, when they moved to finally arrive in the district of Treichville in Abidjan with its population of uprooted failed in the urban odds and ends, (the Treichville of Jean Rouch, "Treichtown" for the lovers of reggae), the parents of Ismaël feel at home. But in Treichville, the vaccination campaigns are not yet in the style of the epoch and at two years old, their elder son Issiaka is thrown down by the polio. It is the end of the Seventies. Issiaka listens to funk music and dreams of the smurfer like the American kids he sees on TV. In 1981, Bob Marley dies, and the elder start to listen to much more reggae. One evening on the television broadcast "Première Chance (first Chance)" of Roger Fulgence Kassy, Ivory Coast discovers Alpha Blondy. He, also, sings in dioula, another Mandingo dialect. For Issiaka, the way is traced. He chooses a name of artist, Ismaël Isaac, and besieges the Ivorian television. He threads on the set of "Première Chance (first Chance)", but nobody wants to listen to him. One day, when the musicians left to lunch. George Kouakou sees Ismaël hidden in a corner "Me also, I want to sing!". George, keyboard player and arranger of the orchestra of the Radio/Television
