My father introduced me to computers at a very young age.

My first computer was a Commodore 64, and even then I was experimenting, in a very basic way, with rhythms and different musical possibilities.

The connection between music and technology was there long before my professional journey began.

Years later, when I began using the Internet to connect people, promote music and imagine different ways of distributing it, that approach felt like a natural continuation of a curiosity that had started in childhood.

My journey in music really began in 1997, when I created Underground Solidarity Team Entertainment — U-SOL TEAM ENTERTAINMENT.

I started from zero, with no money, no diploma and no major infrastructure. I was only seventeen when it all began.

I was already identifying and developing artists locally, looking for ways to give their music greater visibility.

I also created the first U-SOL TEAM website. At the beginning, it contained very little: the collective was still young, the artists were developing and we were virtually unknown outside our local environment.

Because I listened to a great deal of mixtapes, I decided to make selected and exclusive promotional mixtapes available as MP3 downloads on the site. The idea was to draw attention to our underground collective, give more visibility to the artists I was developing, and share exclusive mixtapes with the community.

The website was hosted directly from my own computer, which also served as the server.

I was far from imagining the scale it would eventually reach. Downloads began increasing, especially from the United States, where the site had started to get noticed. At times, my computer-server genuinely struggled to keep up with the volume of downloads.

What had begun as a way to bring an unknown local underground collective out of isolation was taking on a much larger dimension.

As my role expanded into artist development, project direction, promotion and financing, I was already doing in practice what would become the core of my path: Executive Producer / A&R.

The growing attention around the U-SOL TEAM website in the United States eventually opened an unexpected door: DJ Uncle Al invited me to join a private international music-promotion network operating notably through IRC.

Artists, managers, producers, labels, DJs, radio hosts, web-radio operators and regional nodes across different territories were connected there.

I progressively became the network’s European multi-hub — from mixtapes and new talent discovery to major promotional pushes for priority artists.

We received music, listened to it, selected certain tracks and circulated them through our own networks and contacts.

When official physical releases were available, we also shared where to buy them, along with concert dates and other information related to the artists.

As the Internet evolved, the methods changed. The purpose did not.

Listen, select, connect and help people discover.

For several years, the European side of our network received, screened, selected and helped circulate a large volume of tracks, projects and mixtapes.

Some artists were still emerging or had limited international visibility before later becoming major names.

It would be impossible to reduce all those years to a few names.

Among the artists, producers and scenes I remember most clearly are Jermaine Dupri and So So Def, Terror Squad — including Fat Joe, Big Pun and Tony Sunshine — as well as the early days of Rihanna.

On the DJ and mixtape side, I particularly remember DJ Khaled, DJ Drama, DJ Green Lantern, Kool DJ Red Alert and DJ Red.

Those are just a few examples among the many artists, producers, DJs and projects that moved through the network over the years.

Nearly thirty years later, I would rather preserve the spirit of that history than pretend I can reconstruct every conversation, every file or every intermediary.

What I especially liked about certain mixtapes was their ability to place established artists alongside people who were still completely unknown.

You could come for a name you already knew and leave having discovered someone new.

That already matched the A&R instinct I naturally had.

That same mixtape culture also became one of the first ways U-SOL TEAM connected music discovery, community and visibility for the artists I was developing.

At the time, using the Internet that way for music discovery and promotion was still very unusual around me.

A good mixtape did not just make me listen to people I already knew. It introduced me to people I did not know yet.

I never learned English, and I have never hidden that fact — not in the 1990s and not today.

Back then, the translation tools available were extremely basic. I could translate and retranslate the same message many times before sending it, simply trying to preserve what I actually meant.

With certain people in the network, especially DJ Uncle Al, with whom I communicated most regularly, shared habits, expressions and codes developed over time. We eventually learned to understand one another despite the limitations of the translation tools available then.

Today, I recognize certain words, expressions and professional terms from the music industry, but I still could not fully follow an English conversation without assistance.

For written communication, I now use an AI-assisted translation system that I developed so I can communicate much more accurately in English as well as in other languages.

When professional communication requires a live conversation, such as a call or meeting, I can also rely on people around me to interpret in real time when needed.

I have never claimed to speak a language I never learned. I have simply always looked for ways to move beyond the language barrier.

Between 1997 and 1999, several American OGs in the network began calling me TIGERS.

They tied the name to an idea that stayed with me: a shark destroys to grow; a tiger can establish its presence without having to destroy everything around it.

When DJ Uncle Al later found out how old I was, he could hardly believe I was that young.

He told me that when I entered the network with my own structure, I was its youngest member.

In 1999, during a live Internet radio broadcast, he used the name IAM.TIGERS publicly on air.

That identity never left me.

Several other OGs I was in touch with during that period have sadly passed away since.

Peace in the Hood.

IAM.TIGERS was not created as a brand. This identity was born in the underground.

My musical taste has always been broad.

My earliest roots run through jazz, blues and soul, then classical music, before expanding into hip-hop, R&B, Latin music, pop and rock.

I also experimented with composing in styles such as house and techno.

That range shaped the way I listen and the way I work as an Executive Producer / A&R.

Over the years, I followed the evolution of many artists, labels, producers and organizations — sometimes for their sound, sometimes for their story, and sometimes for the way they developed talent.

I have never seen music as a set of closed categories.

Never having learned English has also shaped the way I listen to American music.

When I hear a record for the first time, I do not immediately understand what the artist is saying.

I hear the music before I understand the words.

I listen to the voice — its tone, flow, phrasing and rhythm — along with the melodies, harmonies, production, structure and every element of the arrangement.

But I am especially sensitive to the emotion created by the way the voice and the instrumental interact.

A voice can communicate tension, vulnerability, energy, softness or intensity through the way it sits on the music, even before I know exactly what the lyrics are saying.

Over the years, I have developed a highly detailed listening process, paying close attention to how every element works together.

When a record catches my attention, I then dig deeper into the lyrics, the intent and the message the artist is conveying.

I can feel the potential of a record before I understand every word.

In 2003, as U-SOL TEAM was becoming more formal, I founded TIGERS GROUP to preserve another side of my journey and its underground roots.

TIGERS GROUP remained largely private and underground from 2003 to 2011.

Beginning in 2011, parts of that history became public.

2011 marks the beginning of its public visibility, not the beginning of its existence.

With the arrival of MySpace, U-SOL TEAM also built a more visible public presence.

The organization, the record company and its artists were presented publicly, while I personally remained much more discreet.

My own MySpace profile remained private and was used mainly to stay connected with artists, DJs, radio, labels, majors and other professionals across the music and entertainment industries.

Some archives from that period are still accessible today.

Other material may still exist on older storage media that I am gradually trying to recover.

In 2008, U-SOL TEAM officially became Universal Solidarity Team Entertainment.

It operated as a non-profit organization and a real record company, developing its own talent.

Its work went far beyond music promotion alone.

U-SOL TEAM worked across artist development, production, artist support, promotion and music projects, while also maintaining educational, social and event-related activities.

A team worked across the organization and its different projects; there is no need today to reduce that history to a list of names.

For the young people supported by U-SOL TEAM, one rule was simple: school came before music.

Not all of them were struggling at school or came from disadvantaged backgrounds. But whatever their personal or social situation, education remained a priority for everyone.

Recording sessions, rehearsals, shows and other music activities therefore had to be scheduled around study periods, exams and school obligations.

That sometimes required careful scheduling, but it was possible — and we did it.

When a young person faced serious difficulties or had been excluded from school, we could also work with the family or legal guardian to support re-enrollment and continued follow-up.

Some continued in music, including Laioung and STVEOFF. Others built their future in completely different fields.

Music could open a door, but it should never close the door to education.

As U-SOL TEAM became a formal organization and record company, my role as an Executive Producer / A&R also became more structured.

At that time, I fully financed the music projects developed through the organization while also overseeing their artistic and musical direction, artist development and overall project leadership.

The compositions were not mine.

Looking back, however, I made an important mistake in how I structured that work.

I tied the projects and catalog to the organization instead of clearly separating what also needed to be documented and structured as part of my own professional position.

I should have documented and structured my investment, my direction and my position in relation to the masters more clearly, instead of attaching everything solely to the organization.

When U-SOL TEAM closed in 2013, I therefore did not retain that catalog as my personal professional catalog.

The catalog left with that period. The experience stayed with me.

From 2011 onward, TIGERS GROUP began establishing a public-facing presence, notably through its first online videos.

The tigers-group.com domain was already in use at that time for certain organizational activities and communications, including booking.

Archives still visible today preserve part of that period.

What can be found publicly from 2011 onward is only the visible part of a story that began in 2003.

In 2013, my work in music went through a major interruption.

U-SOL TEAM closed, and a large part of my public presence in music disappeared.

The precise reasons for that interruption and the events surrounding it will remain private until my full story is presented through my autobiographical album.

That period marks a real break between what had been built before and what I am rebuilding today.

In 2022, my life changed dramatically.

After an operation with lasting consequences, followed by a series of difficulties, I lost everything.

For nearly three years, between 2022 and 2025, I had almost nothing left.

To get online, I essentially had only a tablet and a phone and depended on free Wi-Fi networks.

My financial situation became extremely difficult. There were times when several days would pass before I could have a proper meal.

Out of dignity, I told no one that I had nothing left.

Neither the people I spoke with in the music industry nor even my friends and family truly knew what I was living through.

It was not until 2025 that the people close to me discovered the reality of what I had been going through for several years.

Despite all of that, I found my way back to something that had always been part of me: music.

With the very limited means I still had, I started discovering, supporting and promoting artists again without charging them.

Some of that support was shared, reposted or noticed by established figures and organizations in the industry.

They had no idea what was happening on the other side of the screen, but those signs meant more to me than they could have imagined.

When I had lost everything, the music was still there.

In 2025, when the people close to me finally learned the reality of my situation, an unexpected solution helped me gradually regain a basic level of stability.

After several years of relying mainly on a tablet, a phone and free Wi-Fi, I gradually regained the basic tools I needed to return more seriously to creating music.

But returning to music did not simply mean picking up where I left off.

My day-to-day physical reality had changed significantly.

I now had to reinvent the way I worked and created.

My disability and health issues are not always visible from the outside.

They are medically documented, my disability is officially recognized, and some of the effects are permanent.

I live with constant pain, day and night, along with intense fatigue and ongoing medical care.

What people see from the outside does not necessarily reflect what I deal with every day.

I did not return to creating because that reality went away.

I had to find a way to keep creating in spite of it.

Technology now plays an important role in how I adapt.

I combine traditional methods with technology and several AI-based tools — including some I developed to address my own needs.

Those tools do not replace my writing, my vision or my creative decisions.

They now allow me to write my own songs, shape their concept and structure, explore different instrumental and vocal directions, build demos, test multiple approaches and communicate my vision more precisely to the composers, producers and collaborators who will take the projects further.

From the Commodore 64 of my childhood to today’s technologies, the tools change, but the drive to create remains.

Today, I am rebuilding my personal professional catalog almost from scratch.

This time, I am also building my own songs and putting a much clearer structure around my work, projects and rights.

But my journey as an Executive Producer / A&R did not begin with this new catalog.

It began in 1997.

What I am rebuilding today is my current professional catalog — not my experience.

I am starting from zero with my current catalog — not with my experience.

Today, I am gradually developing new artistic, creative, technological and people-centered projects.

I remain guided by principles that have been there from the beginning: vision, loyalty, passing knowledge forward and respect.

My journey has also taught me that an artist or a project almost never succeeds alone.

Behind every project are often writers, composers, producers, musicians, engineers, directors, managers, visual teams and many other people whose contributions can remain invisible.

Recognizing those contributions is part of how I approach every project.

Nearly three decades after I started in the underground, the connection between music and technology still holds a central place in my story.

The tools have changed. The resources have changed. My life has changed dramatically.

But my drive to create, discover talent, connect people and imagine what could come next is still there.

IAM.TIGERS is not an identity created for social media. It was born in the underground, long before anything visible today.