YOUNG IN ANTWERP. Rafil: “I made the plague song for the Ketnet campaign” (Antwerp)
The writing camp of the River Side music studio at the City Pirates brings young talent. The first weekend, a few promising young talents will take the stage at the Arenberg for the first time in their own show. One of them is Rafil (18). “I study accountancy, but I actually want to rap.”
Rebecca Van Remoortere
The young Rafil is nervous for his first show on Saturday in the Arenberg. He’s never been on a stage before. “At least 30 people from my family and friends come to watch, so it must be really good,” he says.
He gets help from the other young people of the writing camp of the City Pirates and of course also from rapper Young B. Not so long ago, Rafil wasn’t much into music. He is a good football player for City Pirates and studies accountancy and taxation. He just finished his exams this week. In the meantime, he also found the time to walk into the writing camp of the City Pirates a few months ago.
“I went in with no expectations. Young B asked us to make lyrics in different themes. One of those themes was bullying and that probably hits a nerve with me. I was a skinny boy as a young child of 10 years old. The smaller boys often targeted me. That started verbally, but also progressed to a nudge here and there. They looked up at me from behind the corner. I tell that story in my song about bullying.”
And we’ll all be hearing that song soon. “It is used in a campaign about bullying by Ketnet, we will start in mid-February. I want to tell other children my story and I will especially tell the bullies to stop.”
And so the developed career for Rafil was born. “My other songs are lighter. I like dancehall and love to make love songs. I certainly don’t always rap about heavy themes. Maybe one day I will also make a song for my mom, because I am very grateful to her for everything she does for me.”
Studies, football and music. Rafil has to keep a lot of balls up, but that is not possible for the time being. “If I could really dream, I would go completely for the music and I want to be a rapper. But my mom wants me to do something with accountancy. I’ll see if I can get it all combined. Now I have to think first of my first performance on Saturday. I can bring two songs. Very exciting.”