Prince 85

0 Releases

9 Tracks

French Hip hop & electronic music producer (aka P85), songwriter, Dj, and graffiti artist originally from Villetaneuse (relocated to Paris).

Wears a realistic humanoid-looking alien mask & refer to himself as an alien. Frequent collaborator of Canadian R&B artist [a=The Weeknd] (since 2013 album "Kiss Land"), whom he met in 2010 in Toronto.

Prince 85 worked with Mike Dean, French Montana, 21 Savage, Playboi Carti, Future, Metro Boomin, Issam (Harris), and Eric Chedeville (from Le Knight Club, Crydamoure label). In 2008, he released his first solo project ever titled "Nostrumental, Pt.1", a compilation of instrumentals/beats under his moniker [a=Grimy Kid], that same year he also released his first EP titled "Insomnia EP" under his other alias "Prince 85" (that EP was the prelude of full album unreleased album titled "Synopsia LP"). Prior to that, [a=Mejdi Rhars] used (as a producer) the moniker [a=Grimy Kid] to produce mostly French rap artists (before moving to the US with the [a=Grim Team]) of the likes of : Booba, Seth Gueko, Pro176 aka Profecy (Rudy Dougbe), Rockin' Squat (from French rap group Assassin), S.Pri Noir (Malick Mendosa), Swift Guad (François Yvan Marletta), Agallah (The Don Bishop), C.O.N.C.E.P.T. (Morgan Lamarre), Kinetic 9 (Samuel Craig Murray), Lil' Eto (aka Eto Swayze, aka Lil' E, aka Eto aka Alvin Olavarria), Infamous Mobb.

Prince 85 is part of the masked electronic duo [a=Black Suburb] along with [a=Omar White], who released their eponymous first album in 2012 & a second album titled in "EXODUS: 1.61" in 2013.

He was also part of [a=D.D.85], a one-off project comprised of three of The Weeknd's frequent hip hop producers/collaborators : [a=Daheala] ("D."), [a=Dropxlife] ("D.") & [a=Prince 85] ("85"), who released a remix album of The Weeknd's first album "Kiss Land" in 2013 titled "KISSLAND キッスランド.

He is a close friend of French synthwave pioneer [a=Kavinsky] (Vincent Belorgey), who discovered him when Mejdi/Prince 85 sent him (during the Myspace era) a remix he had made of the track "Testarossa Autodrive". He has since produced several official remixes for Kavinsky. It was while remixing Kavinsky’s track "Renegade" that he began working with [a=Eric Chedeville] (aka Rico The Wizard)—who offered to produce his album. Over a nine-month period between July 2023 and April 2024, the two musicians worked on Prince 85's upcoming album "The Worst Kind" which is scheduled for 2026.

Trivia:

He is a member of the [a=Grim Team] (a crew of graffiti artists, music producers, filmmakers, photographers formed in Paris in 1996, and expanded to North America in 2001 to market their clothing and music productions) & UltraBoyz graffiti crews.

Originally from Villetaneuse (a commune in the Seine-Saint-Denis 93 department, in the northern suburbs of Paris, France), he moved to Paris and also lived in New York and Toronto.

Prince 85's works with long time collaborator French graphic designer/art director [a=Romain Tellechea], who does all his designs (from flyers to live visuals, album, single, and EP artwork) and is in charge of the art direction of his image.

Prince 85 has worn at least two different masks, a more "horrific"/scary/creepy one, which first appeared on the promotionnal video teaser, the photos, and the cover of the 2013 album "Exodus: 1.61" of his project [a=Black Suburb] (his bandmate [a=Omar White] wears a similar mask), it can also be seen on the album covers of his two EPs "Serial_Number" & "Source_Code"; and a more "normal"/human looking mask (but with an elongated alien shaped protuberance at the back of the cranium), appearing on the record covers of "Electronic Talk", "All Of Us" & "Unbound".

On his 2013 "Source_Code" EP, he used a variety of Synth & machines, including the Roland: Juno-60, VP-330, Jupiter-8 & TR-808 drum machine; and a Yamaha DX7.