Jacques-Anthony: “We are black and we perceive music in a black way. And the listeners are white.”

“That Negro” is the name of one of his collections, and these three words will immediately make it clear who he is talking about. In fact, for many years the popular singer Jacques-Anthony has not been a purebred black man, because his mother admitted to Russian roots on the part of one of his parents. But her son persistently encourages himself to associate himself with the “non-white” contingent of Russia: “I am black, I write black music, and who listens to it: blacks or whites is another question.” Having shocked the rap audience with his tracks while still very young, he is not going to leave the musical sphere and is now arousing great interest in his person.

https://www.instagram.com/jacques_anthony_official_fan/

Who is Jacques-Anthony's father, and why has he still not made peace with his stepfather Legalize? Why, having left for the Congo and living there not at all poorly, did the young man return to Russia? Does he maintain a relationship with his ex-wife, and who is he dating now? The singer answers all these questions without hesitation if asked, but here’s the problem: along with truthful information, some media workers are trying to add outright lies to articles about him. The artist’s fans are extremely interested only in reliable facts, because only from them can the correct, true image of the rapper be formed.

Official data

• Full names: Menshikov, Jacques Anthony. (Menshilov Jacques Anthony);
• Creative pseudonym: Jacques-Anthony;
• Place of birth: Vologda, USSR;
• Date of birth: 1993, January 21;
• Zodiac sign: Aquarius; according to the eastern calendar - Rooster (element of the year is water); patron planet Uranus;
• Height and weight: 181 cm, 79 kg;
• Education: incomplete higher education; studied at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (department of political science);
• Occupation: singer, author of music and lyrics, director, designer;
• Performance style: rap, underground rap, hip-hop;
• Marital status: divorced. Ex-wife - Oksana Menshikova;
• Children: daughter Nicole (born in 2013)

Childhood and youth of Jacques-Anthony (before St. Petersburg)

The future “star” rapper was born in the provincial city of Vologda to a single mother with dark skin. Who is the real father of our hero - only Simone Makanda knows about this, but one can suspect that he was also dark-skinned, because it is not for nothing that instead of her son’s patronymic, she wrote down the name “Anthony”, which is clearly not Russian. According to Jacques, his grandmothers were involved in his upbringing in early childhood and tried to make him a “correct” child. And again, his words (apologies for the literalness): “As one grandmother, another, aunts said about me, I was a rare little shit, I didn’t listen to anyone.” Everyone tried to “shorten” a little the energy that was bursting from the restless baby. Everyone except my mother: she believed that in life from a very early age you need to “bump around” everywhere and draw conclusions from everything.

About my mother: the legendary mulatto, perhaps the only female rapper in the USSR at that time, she herself was “problematic.” No, she had no problems with the law, but Simone in her youth joined an organization called “DOB Community” - membership in this “gang” already implied a huge problem. The team positioned itself exclusively as underground, rejecting any affiliation with the despicable “pop” or other legal forms of pop art. In this group, Simone Makanda met Legalize (in the world - Andrei Menshikov) and married him.

In the photo, Jacques Anthony as a child with his mother and stepfather (Legalise)

Menshikov not only began raising a dark-skinned teenager, but adopted him and gave him his last name. Oh, you can imagine the environment in which Jacques-Anthony was brought up when he grew up... On the one hand, there is his mother, saying to herself: “I am as beautiful as I can tear living flesh with my teeth.” On the other hand, he is a stepfather, a rapper and a professional wrestler (Legalize trained in karate for seven years in his youth). And “hooliganism with a small pinch of vandalism” began, the singer said about his teenage years in Russia.

He and his friends either broke windows at school or slightly damaged a car standing on the side of the road. He was often taken to the police station, and there the guy began to pretend to be “cool”: when asked “Should I call my parents?” the answer was a proud “No.” True, this fuse did not last long, and after a couple of hours he himself asked permission to call his mother. “There were more consequences than “a-ta-ta,” from childhood memories, because everyone punished him mercilessly, and not just scolded him. Then a short break, and again - a call from the police about the arrest of a young vandal and hooligan.

Simone Makanda

But this was already upon arrival from the Congo, where Simone and her son and Legalize unexpectedly left when Jacques-Anthony was only five years old. The boy’s parents were burning with the dream of opening their own rap club; in the late 90s in Russia this was problematic, but in Africa, in the Congo - yes. They chose the Congo because Simone’s paternal relatives lived there, the brothers of Jacques-Anthony’s real father. The boy retained fragmentary but vivid memories of that time: for example, how a shell fell very close to him, how a guard dragged him somewhere to save him from the bombing. The war is what prevented Simone and Legalize from truly “unwinding” in the Congo. The stepfather and stepson are returning to Russia, the mother will come to them a couple of years later.

Vologda again, strict grandmothers, stepfather, then mother returned. It turned out that Liga (as Jacques calls Menshikov) went to Moscow and took the child with him. He sent him not to an ordinary school, but to a very prestigious one - to the Education Center No. 686 of Sergei Kazarnovsky. A black student, along with general education subjects, was introduced to blues, jazz, and acting. And there, with friends, he broke windows and engaged in other hooliganism. “And when I wasn’t busy with this game (meaning hooliganism and being brought to the police), I honestly studied lessons and piano,” - memories of myself, so “white and fluffy” at that time.

Purposefully, he said, the young man began “making” music at the age of sixteen. It’s not surprising: he was put at the piano at the age of three, and at six he was sent to a music school (in parallel with Kazarnovsky’s school). During his school years, his idol was Lamar Kendrick, a black American hip-hop artist, the first “non-classical” musician to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Jacques-Anthony's words: “I was looking for a style to go by, and I chose Kendrick. I tried to write tracks, translating Kendrick into Russian. At first it didn’t work out very well, then it went well.”

Childhood and youth

According to Anthony's passport - Jacques Menshikov. The guy’s relatives live on 2 continents – Africa and Russia. Simone Yori's mother, a native of the Congo, was a member of the first Russian hip-hop community DOB Community. Subsequently, considering that “a woman’s talent among men is doomed to loneliness,” Simone left the group, began writing scripts and became interested in directing.

The musician bears the surname of his stepfather Andrei Menshikov, the same famous rapper and MTV Russia award winner. When Jacques turned 21, his biological father contacted him. The man lives in the Congo, works as an oil worker and, according to Anthony, “stresses” him by forcing him to quit rap and teaching him how to break through in life. Whereas the performer, by his own admission, does not need advice.

Jacques' childhood, according to his stories, was wild and colorful. In 1996, the whole family ended up in the Congo. When war began in the country, Legalize and his stepson returned to their homeland, but Simone remained. Anthony later recalled that the period of life with his father became the freest in his biography, although it differed little from the existence of blacks in the Brooklyn ghetto, except that they did not shoot at each other.

Jacques Anthony with his mother and Legalize

The boy went to the school of the honored teacher of Russia Sergei Kazarnovsky, where the children of the elite studied - actors, bankers, musicians. This is an educational institution with a creative bias; students were allowed to express themselves as their imagination dictates. The main thing is to be able to explain what you are doing and what you want to say.

“The high ended” at the age of 9 - Simone divorced Legalise and took her son to St. Petersburg. There, Jacques, in addition to studying at school, studied dancing and karate. However, the awakened interest in rap, according to his mother, jeopardized Anthony's future prospects. The boy increasingly began to disappear at various parties. Yori's promise to give him a car if Jacques successfully completed school did not help either.

For some period, the rapper studied in the Congo under the supervision of a rich uncle. Simone sent him to Africa the first time Anthony found himself in police custody for using hashish.

Returning to Moscow, the guy enrolled as a political scientist at the RUDN University, but his studies did not work out. Jacques said that at that time he risked “getting money” or even dying, “there were a lot of mistakes.” He was saved by his service in the ranks of the Strategic Missile Forces, where the musician earned the shoulder straps of a corporal. Channel One filmed a program about a black guy from the Ivanovo division. And even there, the rapper managed to run some kind of underground business. But the army, as they say, made Anthony a man.

Youth: St. Petersburg, Congo again, army

2004: Simone and Legalize divorced, and mother and son moved to St. Petersburg, where Madame “Yeri” Makanda began writing scripts and opened a vocal studio - she came up with the prefix “Yeri” while still in the DOB Community. . She did not maintain a relationship with her ex-husband, but Menshikov had already managed to exert a strong influence on his stepson by that time. They did not quarrel at that time (League and Jacques-Anthony), their communication was simply reduced to a minimum at first, and then stopped altogether.

A guy of unusual appearance, with a sense of humor, sociable and active - he easily made friends in the new city and joined the local crowd. There his friendship with Vladislav Shiryaev (later famous rapper Yung Trappa) began. Karate classes (his stepfather also instilled a love for martial arts), dancing (yes, he took up dancing!), mastering the guitar plus the piano - but the street still called him, provoked him to hooliganism. At the age of fifteen, he does not hide it, the teenager fell into bad company, and again there were truancies, reports to the police, scandals with his mother.

“We hung out with the police all the time,” is how he describes those years. Simone was angry and desperate, she even promised to give her son a car if he would give up his bad deeds and graduate from school (it doesn’t matter with what grades, as long as he gets a certificate). Alas, his mother’s admonitions did not influence him, and at some point he miraculously escaped prison. Jacques himself was not brought to justice, but several people from his company were arrested for making a lot of noise at night in a rented apartment, and suspicious smoke was pouring out of the window (as Jacques later admitted, some smoked marijuana). So that her son would not be “raked in” before he finds really serious problems for himself, Simone decides to send her idiot son to his uncle in the Congo.

She hoped that her brother, the owner of a large oil company in the Congo, would set his nephew on the right path, but it didn’t work out. The uncle did not bother much about raising his nephew, but simply gave him money: let the guy do whatever he wanted, as long as he didn’t get noticed. Studying, of course, was completely abandoned; instead of becoming wiser, my nephew began to “hang out” in expensive bars and restaurants. Instead of correction, the opposite happened, and the mother, having learned about this, demands Jacques to come home.

School is somehow finished, mom is happy, what next? The thought of entering the conservatory arose, but he pushed it away: “Well, I’ll go to the conservatory, and then what? Play the violin in transition? No way." At that time, he sincerely believed that no education would give him the opportunity to do what he loved, and he was right to some extent: at that time it was impossible to polish rap talent anywhere, and even now it is problematic. Some of his biographies say that he entered the Peoples' Friendship University at the insistence of his mother, but this is not true. He, on the contrary, had a terrible quarrel with Simone and left for Moscow, and there, out of a sense of contradiction, he entered the RUDN University.

And he didn’t just enter the university, but the Faculty of Political Science. “I wanted to learn how the world works from a political point of view, but I studied for a couple of years and realized that politics was not my thing at all,” his words. Is it really true that you should go outside to the underpass, play and watch coins being thrown into a hat? Despite the fact that it was possible to finish his studies at the university and avoid the army (there was a military department), Jacques-Anthony voluntarily goes to the military registration and enlistment office. He was sent to the missile forces, and a wonderful thing: even there, despite his exotic appearance, he becomes the life of the party.

He was surprised how different the army environment was from the one in which he had been “cooked” before. Of the adult, accomplished men, only Liga was next to him, the rest were boys like him. “I realized that in such an extreme situation, motivation decides everything. If you want to become strong, you will be; if you don’t, everyone will look at you like a brat and treat you accordingly.” In the army, he was not “knocked out” of the habit of living luxuriously, carefreely, as he was used to in Africa: it went away by itself in harsh conditions.

After demobilization, he again meets his old friend Yung Trappa, who has already gained fame in certain circles and has recorded several sensational tracks. Jacques-Anthony decided that he did not need education, especially one with a political bent. “Literally a couple of weeks was enough for me to settle in any environment, no matter whether it was a school, a dorm or the army. And I joined the rapper community right away, without any difficulties.” He chose AM Faya as his first creative nickname, and in the Geygun records studio he began recording his first professional track. As far as he remembers exactly, he paid 500 rubles for one day in the studio.

The year 2013 can be considered the starting point of his creative career: the “Fiery Tony” series began, the first two mixtapes were recorded (a set of musical compositions and fragments in a certain order). Yung Trappa was so impressed by the first collection of a young black musician that he brings him to the studio, where he had already released more than two hundred tracks at that time, and there (TA Inc studio) his friend is given a studio for free.

Early years[ | ]

Jacques-Anthony was born on January 31, 1992 in Vologda. In 1996, when Jacques was 4 years old, his mother Simone "Yori" Makanda (Tsati-Massimina)[8] married Andrei "Legalize" Menshikov, and the whole family went to live in the Republic of the Congo.[9]

In 1997, civil war breaks out in the Congo, and Anthony returns to Russia with his stepfather to live in the Medvedkovo district of Moscow while his mother remains in her homeland. The future singer-songwriter observes the life and creative path of Legalize, which leaves in Jacques’s mind the conviction that the musician’s path is the only correct one[9][10]. Later, Anthony went to school No. 686 (“Class Center”), where, as Jacques himself recalls, all his peers were “children of someone,” and teachers allowed students to express themselves if they could explain why, they taught jazz and blues, acting skills. A year later, Jacques leaves there[9].

In 2004, at the age of 11-12, he settled in St. Petersburg with his mother. Starting with classes in classical music, he begins studying at several music schools and, without completing one year of study, leaves piano lessons, believing that he has already mastered everything he needs. A little later he learned to play the guitar. Closer to the age of 9, he begins to become interested in hip-hop, and at the same time he writes his first rhymed text. From the age of 11 he sang in the choir, quit and started again[1]. At the age of 14, he finds the strength to begin writing and performing[9] rap music[10], around the same time Jacques meets the 11-year-old future rapper Yung Trappa[11].

At the age of 14 he moved to Orenburg and settled in the most criminal district of this city called “Mayak”. But by the age of 15, he realized that even in Africa the standard of living was higher and, at the insistence of his mother, he flew there again. But before that I lived for 4 months in the city of Nizhny Lomov, which is located in the Penza region. He had the warmest memories of this place, as well as its inhabitants, and he subsequently came there more than once to give charity concerts. Then, upon arriving in Africa, he went to school and began to study seriously, but fell into bad company. Jacques lived with his aunt for a year; his uncle is the CEO of an oil company. In Africa, Anthony, observing the lives of his relatives, became very interested in the concept of “beautiful life”: then, using the example of his uncle, who before becoming the director of the company for about 10 years played the saxophone in bars with a jazz band, he realized that a person can do anything[ 9].

Until the 10th grade he was an excellent student, and in the 11th grade he again took up writing music - as he then considered, already seriously. Having passed the Unified State Exam with difficulties and having quarreled with his mother, Jacques himself leaves for Moscow and enters the RUDN [1] Department of Political Science. Studying, according to Anthony, came easily to him, although he was not at all concentrated on it: he did not study anything, did not show up for classes and led an idle lifestyle. As a result, as Jacques recalls, he dropped out of school and, of his own free will, went to serve in the army. Menshikov spent a year in the strategic missile forces in Ivanovo and retired with the rank of corporal[9].

After returning from the army, he noticed that many new artists were emerging on the hip-hop scene - and that they were achieving some success. The same Yung Trappa, as Jacques recalls, was in full swing releasing his mixtapes, having about 350 tracks on his account, which served as inspiration for Tony, and Jacques began actively writing music[9].

The beginning of a musical career and resounding success

He changed aliases very often before he became Jacques-Anthony. Before starting work with “TA Inc”, it was decided to become Dxn Bnlvdn, under this name his first full-fledged video for his own single “Day after day” was presented. This was in December 2013, a couple of months later fans were pleased with the new mixtape “Molly Cyrus”. According to the musician, the main problem was to release not just music, but good music. “Rap began to gain popularity, and in the pursuit of popularity, everyone stopped paying attention to quality. Of course, if you have money, you can promote anything! And try to make “candy” when there is no money.”

DXN BNLVDN – DAY AFTER DAY

Despite the fact that he could use the studio for free (in one place), there was still no initial capital, there was a severe lack of money. I had to work part-time, either as a manager in an airline agency or as a courier in a restaurant - whatever came to hand. The singer tried his hand at business, where his mother had worked quite successfully by that time - in advertising. Advertising videos brought in a small income, and sometimes I received orders to shoot videos. His work in those years was the video “Hummingbird” for the track of the same name by rapper Miyagi. But he wanted to make his own music, and in 2014 he shot the video “#Podomnaya”, and in the same year he recorded the mini-album “Enough Questions”.

Jacques Anthony #PODOMNOY

Information about him began to appear in the press, and for some reason almost all media publications indicated: “Legalize’s son reads rap” - no one bothered to clarify that Menshikov was not his own father, although he gave him his last name and raised him in childhood. By that time, Andrei Vladimirovich no longer communicated with Jacques’ mother, he got married, and had a child with his new wife. Legalize later wrote: “Even though we were on equal terms with Jacques-Anthony at that time, I was extremely unpleasant that I was made out to be his father. It’s good that my son was small and couldn’t read the nonsense about my supposedly grown-up child rapper. I called Jacques and asked for clarification, but I didn’t hear anything intelligible.” There was a scandal with mutual accusations, the result was that they actually quarreled for a long time due to the fault of the press.

Some statistics about what Jacques-Anthony realized over the years at the time when his dramatic creative breakthrough occurred:

• End of 2014: a song is released, followed by the video “Old Testament”, then the mini-album “Live and Do.” In these works, the singer, in his words, “pours out all the bitterness and anger.” December of that year - the release of the video “To the Stadiums”;
• April 2015: release of the video series “From the Streets.” The middle of 2005 for Jacques-Anthony is characterized by the fact that there was a conflict with L'One, who was the first to implement the “dab” technique in Russia: this characteristic movement was invented in 2014 in the USA by black rappers - the forearm is brought to the face, and the head falls sharply, it feels like you want to sneeze into your sleeve. Long quarrels and showdowns did not allow us to achieve the truth;
• April 2015: release of the mixtape “#NoName”. “A lot of material has accumulated, mostly rubbish, but I thoroughly processed it and put it together. This needed to be shown in order to further launch something new,” - this is how Jacques-Anthony gave the collection;
• Then, August: release of the video “Monster Constellation”. In the video, which was filmed in one take and then released without editing, the singer reads against the backdrop of a bus (this ill-fated bus will “resurface” in an interesting situation);
• August 12, 2015: a song (still a song) with Oksimiron is recorded. The single “Breathless” will then be included in the collection of the same name, and a little later two videos will be recorded. In the first, Oksimiron is visible in the distance as a silhouette, in the second he already fully appears on the screen.

Jacques Anthony ft Oxxxymiron – breathless
This was a turning point in Jacques-Anthony’s life: yes, fame had long since arrived, but after “Breathless” he was bombarded with offers of concerts and tours one after another. Twenty-seven cities in one and a half months - the result of a big tour that year. “I didn’t earn much money, but it didn’t matter! I thought to myself: yesterday I was selling plane tickets, and today I’m already reading from a huge stage to a whole crowd - cool!” – fragment from an interview-memoir. Jacques-Anthony now says that the period 2015-2016 was not quite right for him: “I tried to show myself much brighter, “stuck out” a certain personality. I also wanted to position myself as a representative of Western culture, Western mentality - this was a mistake.”

On the other hand, if he did “standard Russian rap,” he would probably get lost in the crowd of dozens of people like him—the singer has realized this these days. But he couldn’t sing about “Russian everyday life”; he wanted to show about the life of a black guy in Russia. They began to say about him that he was “baiting” - stealing the style from other performers; Jacques-Anthony got a particularly hard time from Scryptonite fans. To which he replied: “I’m not even offended, it’s just funny. You cannot steal from someone who is not an authority for you, and that’s exactly what Scriptonite was not for me back then. And if you compare carefully, I read in a natural voice, while Scryptonite’s is an imitation.”

Jacques-Anthony – Hell is us

He continues to create at a frantic pace:

• February 2016, video “Hell is us”;
• a little later - the singles “Let’s Blow Up” and “Like a Shark”;
• May 2016, the video “Fallen” and an invitation to Ivan Urgant’s program. The rapper said that his work is impossible without pain, anger, and that all his songs and albums are the result of this pain;
• end of May: release of the second full-length album “Dorian Gray. Volume I". The artist described this collection as “the most difficult and painful work.”

Jacques-Anthony from 2017 to the present day

The singer’s unexpected (albeit successful) entry into the “official” musical wave caused many controversial, even offensive statements from his fans. This concerns the recording of the soundtrack to Fyodor Bondarchuk’s film “Attraction,” which included Jacques-Anthony’s single “Our District.” “My favorite black idol has sold out! Now he reads and sings not for the sake of convictions, but for big money!” – fans of the singer began writing such hysterical posts on the Internet. But “it wasn’t like that, it wasn’t like that at all,” as in the old joke...

Jacques-Anthony – Our District (OST Attraction)

Actor Nikita Kukushkin, who starred in “Attraction” and a close friend of the rapper, called Jacques-Anthony with the words: “Bondarchuk almost formed the soundtrack, but not a single song on the boy’s theme worked.” Can you help me?". It was impossible to refuse a friend, even though “things were going wrong, there was a problem with the installation of the next collection,” - the words of Jacques-Anthony. “Our District” was recorded in one take and given to Bondarchuk for audition. Everything would be fine, but the director asked the singer to go with him to the “100 to 1” show, and when they saw the rapper in such a “glamorous” environment, they definitely thought: they paid him incredible money!

“I did it completely free of charge, and I don’t consider it a mistake. What kind of commerce? I went to the show because the film needed PR, and I could use it. And I wanted to meet with my brother Nikita on the same set for a long time,” the singer later commented on the indignation of the fans. And he also clarified: “What’s wrong with appearing on TV? On the contrary, it is useful for your career. I don’t want to be like Slava CPSU, who shouts at every corner that TV is crap, and then tries to get in there at every opportunity.” Harsh, but honest and open.

Jacques-Anthony - That Negro

They seemed to have forgotten that before “Attraction” he was in pain and then released the sequel to “Dorian Gray” and the video “That Negro.” What is Dorian Gray? Volume I took a long time to be selected, it was painful to throw out some compositions, because, in Jacques-Anthony’s opinion, they “did not fit the general concept” - his words. It was then that the singer spoke sharply to the fans: “It’s as if they are not coming to a concert, but to a brothel, and we, as prostitutes, must fulfill their demands. This will never happen - I work for my own pleasure, and then for the crowd.”

From May to October he had an unexpected break: fans were already accustomed to the rapper “shooting” new videos and singles like a machine gun. During this period, only two songs were released - “24/7” and “My World”. It turns out that he was working on the album “DoroGo”, and when the recording was going on, he understood: everyone would start “bombing”, they were waiting for the usual rap, but “Dorogo” was in a completely different style. He decided then, in his words: “I’m tired of rushing around, choosing whether to rap or not rap, I just need to make good music.” The guy rewrote this album three times, and now he admits that perhaps the first version was better, but “what’s done is done.”

He wanted to reach a new, international level. So that foreigners would be amazed (again his words): “Oh my God,” are these the same Russians with vodka and balalaikas? It turns out they know how to do something normal?” And at the same time, Jacques-Anthony hates rapping in English: “I don’t want the stadium behind me to chant English obscenities. My desire is for a crowd of thousands to cry when I touch them to the quick.”

Jacques Anthony - EXPENSIVE

Why did he call the album "DoroGo"? Because a lot of money went into this collection: live recordings, working with beatmakers, problems with equipment and musicians. The album really turned out to be not a rap album at all, but it earned high praise from the masters of “non-pop” music: the collection was praised by “Quest Pistols”, Dzhigan spoke very positively. It would seem that he suddenly did not care about the audience who admired him just recently. “I want me not to be ashamed of what I do. Of course, the songs will have a little about sex, drugs and other negative stuff, but I started filtering what I sing,” was his comment.

Harshness and scandalousness are gradually disappearing from his work, although pain and suffering remain. Jacques-Anthony, although he belonged to the underground movement from the very beginning, is a non-conflict person, and he did not try to earn cheap popularity with negative antics. And he condemns this among fellow rappers: so we approached the bus. Artem Shakhotin, aka Boulevard Depo, was filmed peeing (huge apologies, but that's what he was doing) on ​​a Reigun Records van. The photo ended up on Instagram, and in a chorus of enthusiastic admiration, Jacques-Anthony responded extremely harshly to this trick. Then, however, they made peace, and Jacques was the initiator of the reconciliation.

https://www.instagram.com/jacques_anthony/

His interviews appear in the press, where he says: “I’m going to finish my career by the time I’m thirty, that is, by the end of 2018.” The fans are already in mourning, in panic, and he added fuel to the fire: “I will finish my career as a musician and will help people develop. I dream of the moment when I’ll go up to some young person and say: here’s a million dollars for your music.” Or, he continued, you could start making films: “Even if it’s ten times more expensive and just as much more difficult, it’s worth a try.”

They say it right: don’t voice it, and it won’t happen. In the spring of 2018, a huge number of his concerts were canceled, some were postponed to the fall. “Jacques-Anthony is in a hospital bed! They tried to kill him or poison him!” – the press reports were frightening. It was his own fault: “I overexerted myself, didn’t calculate my strength, I didn’t even have the opportunity to eat properly, and this is the result - I almost died from overexertion,” is his answer. A strict schedule: getting up early in the morning, eating normally, training under the supervision of doctors - and he is ready to compete again.

It didn’t work out for him to give up his career as a musician! October 2018: Dorian Gray again, this time The Road to Machu Picchu. It should be noted that the entire “Dorian Gray” has different covers in accordance with the original prototype: the hero ages, his image “deteriorates”, it deteriorates on purpose - the original paintings were exposed to water, paints and even insects. And in June 2019, the long-awaited (and widely advertised, to be honest) collection “Jaws” was released, which includes 13 tracks.

And a month before the release of the album, Jacques-Anthony shocked fans by introducing them to the song “Sailing Ship.” The song - because it is not a rap song at all, does not even remotely resemble his previous works. “A pop sound, great for dance floors,” was the response she received from the media.

About personal life

According to him, relationships with the opposite sex were initially fleeting and short-lived. “I haven’t been with anyone for a long time; I didn’t bring a single girl home to introduce me to my mother,” a fragment from an interview. The meeting with Oksana turned his life upside down - he suddenly realized that it was with her that he wanted to have a stable relationship.

https://www.instagram.com/_oksana_menshikova_/

The bride’s parents were terribly against it, in his words: “There was a lot of negativity towards me, they strongly advised me to leave me and find a “normal one.” Oksana married a rapper and took his last name. On July 14, 2013, the singer posted on Twitter: “My daughter was born at 6:05 am!” The husband and wife named the girl Nicole.

Jacques Anthony with his wife and daughter. Photo https://www.instagram.com/_oksana_menshikova_/

At the end of 2018, in one of his live broadcasts, Jacques-Anthony stunned listeners that he had divorced his wife. And almost immediately rumors appeared (later supported by facts) that he was dating a girl, Sonya. Badsophie, an aspiring female rapper at that time, appeared on her and his Instagram in joint photos, plus information was leaked to the press that the rapper helped her shoot a video.

https://www.instagram.com/jacques_anthony/

It was true, according to him: “I saw her at first with friends, but didn’t pay attention. Then a few hours later I heard her reading, offered to help, and made a video. Two weeks later I wrote to her - come, I can’t live without you.” Almost verbatim from what he says about his relationship with Sonya. This is how Russia has one more singing couple.

Personal life

Jacques tells briefly about himself: he is touchy, jealous, does not take criticism, loves milk, the cartoon “The Prince of Egypt” and the works of Mikhail Bulgakov. In his spare time, Anthony plays games on computer consoles where two people need to compete. Doesn't drink alcohol.

Jacques Anthony and his wife Oksana

It is known about the rapper’s personal life that his wife’s name was Oksana. In 2013, the couple had a daughter, Michelle, and 5 years later the family broke up. Anthony began a new love story with the young performer BADSOPHIE.

Jacques once admitted that for a normal life and the implementation of his planned projects, he needs 3 million rubles. per month. The singer does not have that kind of money, but Anthony easily buys designer items and expensive toys for his daughter. He claims that there are people who invest a lot of money not only in his music. These anonymous people are attracted to all aspects of an artist's existence.

Song “Breathless” by Jacques Anthony and Oxxxymiron

Among his colleagues, Jacques puts Oxxxymiron in first place; he believes that he, like no one else, corresponds to the world level. There is no talk about Timati, “he’s been promoted for a long time, and he’s not a rapper.” In 2015, together with Miron, the musician recorded the composition and video “Breathless”.

Anthony opened accounts on Twitter and Instagram.

Interesting facts about Jacques-Anthony

1. Rumor has it that Legalize dedicated the album “Young King” to his stepson as a sign of his desire to make peace. Jacques-Anthony says that if this is true, he is very pleased and does not mind.
2. The singer is sincerely perplexed why rappers don’t stick together like pop artists. “The pops hang out together, they cook in the same pot, help each other - you’ll be jealous! And we, like wild wolves, mostly run alone.”
3. The 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, in his opinion, opened the way for Russian rap into the world: “From the first day, they immersed themselves in our music and were incredibly surprised that we could make good rap. And I immediately received invitations abroad, I was filmed and published abroad, for example in England.”
4. His opinion about working on music: the more you sit on it, the worse it becomes. It’s paradoxical, but he really likes what he wrote down quickly. And what was redone - he regrets the first option.
5. If he is reproached for the “commercialization” of creativity, the singer reminds: “I wrote my first tracks when I couldn’t drink milk, but ate onion soup! Now try to blame me for rapping for money!”
6. When asked to compare himself to an animal, he says: “I often imagine myself as a lone black shark, swimming around and trying to survive among a crowd of killers and bastards, so as not to end up in the food chain.”
7. He has a lot of tattoos on his body, but his favorite is on his shoulder, in the form of a microphone. A friend from the design department gave him this tattoo before the army: “I redid it, tore the skin in two places, there was a lot of blood. But I left it as a memory of pre-army life,” the words of Jacques-Anthony.
8. And on his hands he has a tattoo - telephone codes for Moscow and St. Petersburg: on one hand 495, on the other 812. The artist says: “So as not to offend
9. Vologda, where I was born and raised, I tattooed the coat of arms of Vologda on my right side.”
10. And again his words about the direction of music in which he works: “I am sure that Russian rap will do the same thing to Europe as Peter the Great!”

Interesting Facts

An unpleasant moment in the artist’s biography was a skirmish that ended with a knife wound. Returning home late in the evening, Jacques noticed that tipsy sailors were behaving too violently on the playground. He reprimanded the men, for which he was hit on the head with a bottle and wounded in the rib. Despite his injuries, the rapper did not contact the police.