A comedy video sensation and chart-topping rapper, Mister V is a pervasive presence in the panorama of French pop culture. Born Yvick Letexier in Grenoble in 1993, to a French father and a mother of Cameroonian origin, Mister V’s fertile imagination led him to create a comedy podcast at the age of 15. The popularity of his online sketches and caustic humor catapulted Mister V to national fame in the mid-2010s, when he started appearing regularly on TV and took his one-man comedy routine to the stage. In 2017, the lifelong rap français disciple traded banter for bars with the release of his trap-dense debut album Double V. The rapper’s self-assured cadence over cloud rap (“Bulletproof”) and the potent 808 arrangement of album standout “Space Jam” implanted a newly serious Mister V within the burgeoning French rap scene. Resuming his comedic duties—notably by nailing parodies of his rap contemporaries—Mister V returned with a polished sophomore album, MVP, in 2020, recruiting domestic rap heavyweights PLK (“Jamais”) and Dosseh (“Gang”) to pump up the eclectic collection of trap, 2-step, and Afropop. His buoyant collaboration with the French rap superstar Jul, “Pirelli,” showcased a refined flair for pop-rap conventions, certifying Mister V as a forward-looking force in the new wave of rap français.
