Rapper K2 Rhym, ex-husband of Nesrine Ben Ali, is he preparing for his conversion into politics? His media interventions and his charitable actions recall the previous Nabil Karoui …
It’s undermined like never before that K2 Rhym submits to Naoufel Ouertani’s flood of questions on the Attessia channel at prime time on December 12. At 40, with his beautifully crafted dark suit and matching gray tie, the rapper has never looked so stylish. Not even when he married in 2019 to Nesrine, the third of ex-President Ben Ali’s daughters, from whom he has since separated. On the set, everything happens as if Karim Gharbi – his real name -, abandoning his furs and extravagant outfits for a sober style, was trying to erase his reputation as a bad boy.
Sheep and masks
The rapper, who has known Snoop Dogg in particular, is now seen as a good Samaritan who intends to restore abandoned schools and high schools in Tunisia. A laudable goal, especially as the country’s education and health infrastructure are particularly dilapidated, due to lack of budget and maintenance.
If, K2 Rhym, native of Ksar Saïd, peripheral district of Tunis, likes ostentatiousness, willingly exhibits his tattoos and his musculature and is more familiar with the world of the night than that of charity, he nevertheless seems to have taken a liking to it. and recalls that he was appointed goodwill ambassador by the UN in 2017.
“These are the kinds of people young Tunisians identify with “
An appointment that was not followed by actions referenced or made public by the body but the rapper is not his first action in Tunisia. In less than a year, he has extensively publicized his care for 14 children of the association La Voix de l’Enfant de Nabeul, his donation of sheep to the poorest for Eid, not to mention the supply of equipment sanitary ware and masks for hospitals, including that of Kasserine, a governorate in which he is launching school restoration projects.
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“I am going to rebuild this country”, asserts Karim Gharbi bluntly. A desire to overcome on its own the failings of the State which challenges in more than one way. “But beware, these are the kind of people young Tunisians identify with,” assures political communication specialist Kerim Bouzouita.
Some see the rapper’s career as a lesson in life. Starting from nothing, he made it all on his own, until he established himself as a true businessman in the music world in the Middle East, both a musician and a producer. After arriving in Paris at the age of 15, he signed with EMI France and then Virgin Middle East. Recognized as a beast of the stage, he was nominated in the Best Middle Eastern Artist category at the MTV Awards in 2012 and received the Best Middle Eastern Rapper Award in 2015. The show “Urban fen”, that he hosted on Hannibal TV, gave him significant visibility in the Arab world. But if he has mainly evolved artistically in the Gulf countries and the Arabian Peninsula, he has never lost sight of Tunisia.
In the Ben Ali family… and Escobar
A heartbreaker or a ladies’ man, K2 Rhym accepts his conquests, especially when they contribute to his sulphurous reputation. After getting married with Nesrine Ben Ali – whose first name he had tattooed on his hand – and having ensured that he was in contact with Pablo Escobar’s daughter, he appeared on Instagram with Manuelle Découper, daughter of another baron drug.
But the man has nothing to do with gossip that gives him connections in the industry and does not deign to answer on the origin of his fortune. The media will have to be content with a laconic: “I was successful in my life, I made a lot of money”.
For some, the action of K2 Rhym is remote-controlled by his ex-mother-in-law, Leïla Ben Ali
Nevertheless: the question of his fortune is a loophole exploited by his detractors, mainly sympathizers of President Kaïs Saïed. K2 Rhym is no exception to comparison with businessman Nabil Karoui – founder of Qalb Tounes and unsuccessful 2019 presidential candidate – who made charity a stepping stone to politics. Enough to lend him political ambitions … and imagine the most delusional scenarios.
Some say that the action led by K2 Rhym is controlled by his ex-mother-in-law, Leïla Ben Ali, who “is preparing the return of the Trabelsi clan to Tunisia”. His union with Nesrine Ben Ali and their photos leaked on social networks had also lifted the veil on the fate of the family of the president in exile in Saudi Arabia.
But the rapper does not get lost in empty rhetoric and simply wants to help the country. While he recently appeared in Kasserine alongside Rim Abdennadher and Hajer Driss, both representatives of civil society, he says he has no political goals. Only time will tell.
