YOLO is GIMS’s victory lap. With quick-fire images of Italian car bodies, Berlin engines, Bedouin investors and smoky French clubs, he shows how far he has travelled from the pavements of Kinshasa. The lyrics bounce between Lingala slang and Parisian street talk, reminding us that he belongs everywhere he sets foot. The “storm” of poverty and doubt is over, and the road feels shorter when you are behind the wheel of a Range Rover.
Yet beneath the luxury and bravado lies a hustler’s code. GIMS repeats that he is “only here for my pay” and will “die like a Kinois,” honouring the resilience of the child who once roamed Congo’s streets. YOLO is both a flex and a warning: enjoy the good times, collect your earnings, keep your roots close, and never cancel at the last minute. Life moves fast – you only live once – so make every move count.
GIMS, born Gandhi Djuna in 1986 in Kinshasa, is one of the biggest stars in French music. His family left the Democratic Republic of the Congo for Paris when he was just two years old, and he grew up in the French capital.
He first made his name as the masked frontman of the rap collective Sexion d'Assaut, one of the groups behind France's rap revival around 2010. Since going solo in 2013 he has become a chart-topping, stadium-filling artist who blends rap, pop and R&B, and he has worked with international names like Sia, Sting, Maluma and Pitbull.