Albi X: “I experience discrimination from both sides.”

Albi X, whose real name is Boris, began playing the drums at the tender age of three. He was still at primary school when he started accompanying his dad to church choir rehearsals. Soon, Boris was playing drums in his first band, singing and rapping songs in Lingala, one of the official languages of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He realised early on that music gave him strength and a sense of confidence – two things he needed lots of during his youth because of the bullying he suffered due to the way he looked.

The 26-year-old has albinoism, an inherited condition caused by a lack of melanin. He also experienced racism due to his Congolese roots. This double harassment prompted him to post a photo on Instagram, showing his face squeezed between a white and a black fist with a caption reading, “I encounter discrimination from both sides.” Today, he says the “X” in his stage name is partly a symbol of the inner strength that protects him from those sorts of attacks and abuse.

Drums, singing and hip-hop in Ehrenfeld

The son of Congolese immigrants was born in Augsburg in south Germany, but the family moved to Cologne’s Ehrenfeld neighbourhood soon after. “This is where I grew up and it’s still my favourite place to be”, Albi X tell us.

When he was a schoolboy, he used to play football on the pitch near the local station and meet up with friends for hip-hop sessions. “We’d stand in a circle and one or two of us would step into it and start dancing”, he remembers. “From Ehrenfeld to Cologne’s central station, we met up at different places – sometimes there were as many as 100 of us”. He’d met his friends at the youth club in the nearby Bickendorf district and at Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld, two of his favourite places at the time. He created his own spaces, places where he could feel safe, far away from school where he was bullied day in and day out.

Singing, drumming, dancing and performing started to play an increasingly large part in Albi’s life. And it was at a dance session in front of the central station that a talent scout approached him and asked whether he’d like to do some modelling. Boris, who was 12 at the time, was dumbfounded: “I thought he was kidding.” But he said yes and soon realised he enjoyed modelling. Up until then, he’d always associated his looks with negative perceptions but now he saw they were part of him, something that made him stand out from the crowd, something he could be proud of. “When I was on the catwalk or in front of a camera, it was suddenly all about me and I could forget all the negative things I’d experienced.” And performing music before an audience turned out to feel even better.

Giving others strength and confidence through music

There came a time when his father said he had to decide between football and music. Managing both hobbies was time-consuming and too much in addition to school, Albi X says today. He knew music would be his choice. Partly because he would have needed better vision to be a successful footballer – people with albinoism usually have slightly impaired eyesight. But mainly because singing on a stage felt 100% like the right place to be.

“For me, it was a way to show who I really am” – away from any prejudices people had due to his condition. He aims to give others the strength and motivation to be who they are. By singing in German, French, English and Lingala, he brings together the different influences he experienced growing up. But he also wants to use his music to overcome differences between people. Even though hardly anyone in Germany understands Lingala, the audience can feel the positive energy of his performance and a connection with his songs, he says.

After he recorded a song in a studio for the first time in 2016, other professional musicians started to take notice. His first album, Deufrala, came out in the autumn of 2020 and he went on to win the PopNRW Award in the “Outstanding Artist” category in October 2022. Albi X has already toured Germany several times – most recently with DJ artist Haivai B. He was also given permission to perform on top of Cologne’s Lanxess Arena for the video to his song “Lélé” – the first rapper/singer to be allowed to do so. “It was really a huge honour and a fantastic experience,” says the artist.