Pzk

In 2006 five longtime companions launched the French pop outfit PZK, whose roster comprises MC-producer-DJ KBC (Clement Simpelaere), MC JLB (Hugo Jeans Louis Baptiste Blondel), producer Baobab (Antoine Delbeare), MC Djouzy Djouz (Mendji Tebabes), and MC Olf (Florent Pyndhia). Their lyrics skewer the everyday fixations of the average teenage male—girls, school, parties, pizza, video games, loud music—while the music fuses electro-pop, hip-hop, and dance grooves into an energetic cocktail that yielded repeated successes. The friends first amused themselves by penning comic rap verses during early adolescence; once their technique sharpened they began capturing the material on recordings and circulating the results. Growing online traction for their podcasts and mixtapes paved the way for several television appearances and a joint project with fellow French hip-hop act Obscene Kids, after which Warner Music Group offered a recording contract. The 2009 single “La Filles Adorent” became a major hit in France, and the self-titled debut album PZK followed within months.