Bamako, capital of Mali, looks like a giant dustbin full of smiling ghosts looking for food. People are so poor there, they have to carry their weight of rice (or wood or plastic bags) all day long under the sun to get less than 20 euros by the end of the month. Meanwhile, Malian crunk (which sounds a bit like reggaeton) artist Don Vetcho and his friends are throwing coupé-décalé parties, drinking champagne and showing their fake Vuittons in whorehouse clubs run by Lebanese mobsters. But where the hell are those 100 Euro bills, that they're flashing in this video coming from?There is no middle class in Mali, unless you are the son of a minister or a mayor; you are just poor. And most people are so obsessed with being good muslims, they never commit any crimes.
There are no thieves; if a guy steals a tourist's backpack, he's just beaten up by every women around, then brought to the police and sentenced to death, so he won't do it again. There are no drug dealers; weed is everywhere and is so cheap, it's not even a business. Sure, you can get every drug you want when you're a white man coming in town for business, but you'll have to find some of the Lebanese selling expensive coke and heroin in one of the palaces next to the Niger river, such as Khadafi's property, where we scored the best coke ever from a guy called Baghdad.
There are no whores; you'll never find a Malian prostitute in a Malian whorehouse. The 14-year-old girls in high heels who are smiling and grabbing you by the hand to do the coupé-décalé dance in the maquis (clandestine bars) are from Burkina Faso or Ghana, or Cote d'Ivoire. If you ever find a Malian whore it means you're not in Mali anymore or her family will be dissed by other families forever. All families are linked and observant of each other and the main value in Mali is "respect for the family".
The only legal illegal business here is counterfeiting. Everything is fake in Mali. You can get fake Yamaha motorbikes coming from China, thousands of fake CDs coming from Dubai and the guys from the coupé-décalé scene all wear fake Diesel shirts, Cartier watches and offer fake Louis Vuitton handbags to their main girls. But, they're still not getting any money from their music because nobody's buying it. So where is the money coming from?
Well, it's coming from France and England where some of those young West African hustlers are hijacking money transfers from African bank accounts to European bank accounts. Back home, these Hustlers are celebrated as people's heroes because they are redistributing part of their money by tipping the crowd in bars and clubs where they are loved like black Robin Hoods. That's why Bamako nightclubs look like Atlanta's strip clubs. But according to Don Vetcho: "There are black sheeps in every drove but we are no gangsters like the rappers in America, we are just good workers. We are showing our money to encourage African kids to become good workers too. And if they still don't have any money that's their problem, not mine".MATHIEU BERENHOLC
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There are no thieves; if a guy steals a tourist's backpack, he's just beaten up by every women around, then brought to the police and sentenced to death, so he won't do it again. There are no drug dealers; weed is everywhere and is so cheap, it's not even a business. Sure, you can get every drug you want when you're a white man coming in town for business, but you'll have to find some of the Lebanese selling expensive coke and heroin in one of the palaces next to the Niger river, such as Khadafi's property, where we scored the best coke ever from a guy called Baghdad.
There are no whores; you'll never find a Malian prostitute in a Malian whorehouse. The 14-year-old girls in high heels who are smiling and grabbing you by the hand to do the coupé-décalé dance in the maquis (clandestine bars) are from Burkina Faso or Ghana, or Cote d'Ivoire. If you ever find a Malian whore it means you're not in Mali anymore or her family will be dissed by other families forever. All families are linked and observant of each other and the main value in Mali is "respect for the family".
The only legal illegal business here is counterfeiting. Everything is fake in Mali. You can get fake Yamaha motorbikes coming from China, thousands of fake CDs coming from Dubai and the guys from the coupé-décalé scene all wear fake Diesel shirts, Cartier watches and offer fake Louis Vuitton handbags to their main girls. But, they're still not getting any money from their music because nobody's buying it. So where is the money coming from?
Well, it's coming from France and England where some of those young West African hustlers are hijacking money transfers from African bank accounts to European bank accounts. Back home, these Hustlers are celebrated as people's heroes because they are redistributing part of their money by tipping the crowd in bars and clubs where they are loved like black Robin Hoods. That's why Bamako nightclubs look like Atlanta's strip clubs. But according to Don Vetcho: "There are black sheeps in every drove but we are no gangsters like the rappers in America, we are just good workers. We are showing our money to encourage African kids to become good workers too. And if they still don't have any money that's their problem, not mine".MATHIEU BERENHOLC