«J'ai passé ma vie à survivre, j'aimerai vivre un instant»
(from his song God Knows)
His latest coup: the broadcast of the MTV Unplugged project – a get-together of friends and fellow musicians of probably the greatest Swiss hip-hopper. The preliminary highlight of a career that turns twenty this year. At the age of twelve, Stress, whose name at the time was Andres Andrekson, came to Lausanne with his family from Tallinn in Estonia, which was still part of the Soviet Union. Bringing the music of the street to the stage in this tranquil city of all places, and in French to boot, was only briefly irritating: Stress prevailed, underlaying the misery of his childhood with the harsh sound of rebellion. Stress sees his music as an expression of his feelings, but his songs also often contain clear messages against racism or extremism. His candid approach to his own depression and a book about the darkest moments in his life catapulted him into the Olympus of great artists last year.
