‘Growing Up When Kitty Was Kitty’: Otho ‘France’ Harris Blends Guyanese Street Reality, Creolese, and Legal Ambitions

By Antonio Dey | HGP Nightly News |

GEORGETOWN, GUYANA — When former St. Rose’s High School student Otho Harris stepped into a Toronto recording studio in 2017 during a family vacation, he had no intention of pursuing a music career. Nine years later, performing under the moniker France, the Georgetown-raised lyricist and communication studies graduate is emerging as one of Guyana’s most compelling artistic voices, using Creole dialect, vivid wordplay, and layered social commentary to chronicle modern Guyanese urban life while simultaneously pursuing professional ambitions in law.

Through his newly circulating track, ‘Bout Money’, France delivers hard-hitting reflections on youth survival, commercial greed, crime, and street-level streetscapes, demonstrating that homegrown Guyanese music can convey complex cultural storytelling without losing authentic local rhythm.

An Accidental Genesis: From Introvert to the Canadian Studio Booth

Harris’s path to musical expression began in the visual arts and physical discipline rather than vocal performance:

• From Canvas to Canvas: Describing his early years as an introvert, Harris initially expressed his creativity through painting before discovering an affinity for cadence, lyricism, and vocal storytelling.
• Martial Arts Confidence: At age 11, he immersed himself in traditional Karate, an experience he credits with instilling the focus, poise, and performance confidence required to command an audience.
• The 2017 Studio Breakthrough: During a visit to his cousin in Canada in 2017, Harris was invited to sit in on a recording session. Intrigued by the instrumentals, he began quietly humming along in the booth, catching the attention of those present. Encouraged to try a few bars, he penned several verses on the spot—and returned home to Guyana committed to developing his craft.

“I was quite an introvert… I found myself being expressive with the arts. I used to dabble in painting, but I fell in love with music as I grew older… When I visited my cousin in Canada in the year 2017, he was already into the music and I had no idea that I wanted to do anything with music… While they were dabbling, I was humming to the instrumentals, and everybody was like, ‘You got a bit of vocals deh.’ I didn’t tell my cousin that I wrote anything… Came back to Guyana, never stopped.” — Otho “France” Harris

Street Commentary: Authentic Memories and Living Vicariously

Harris’s music is deeply anchored in the physical and cultural geography of Georgetown:

• Georgetown’s Evolving Neighborhoods: Having grown up in Kitty before moving to South Georgetown, France draws on childhood memories of traditional community life, contrasting those experiences with contemporary economic realities.
• Vicarious Storytelling: As a former communication studies student, Harris crafts songs not only from personal encounters, but also by observing the struggles of peers navigating limited opportunities, consumer pressure, and street hazards.
• Preserving Creolese: His lyrics, including lines referencing local cuisine and street life (“puri, juice and fish cake”), celebrate the Guyanese Creole dialect as a legitimate medium of cultural expression and national identity.

“I grew up in Kitty when Kitty was Kitty, and I moved to South when South was South. When I am writing, for those things to flow with me, it was a memory and experience… So you have different experiences where I lived vicariously through somebody, and when I had my own experience.”

Defending Human Authenticity in the Age of AI

In an entertainment landscape increasingly influenced by automated production and artificial intelligence, France remains committed to human authenticity:

• Human Depth Over Algorithms: While acknowledging the utility of digital platforms for global distribution, the artiste emphasizes that genuine human struggle, personal pain, and cultural nuances cannot be replicated by algorithms.
• The Dual Career Path: Rather than choosing between music and academia, France is actively balancing his musical career with legal studies, aiming to prove that young Guyanese creatives can contribute meaningfully to both the cultural economy and the legal fraternity.

As Guyana’s creative arts sector expands alongside its economy, Otho “France” Harris stands out as an artist demonstrating how local storytelling, intellectual discipline, and cultural heritage can thrive on the modern stage.

The video below showcases the official music video for France’s single ‘Bout Money’, highlighting his lyrical delivery against the backdrop of iconic Georgetown street scenes.

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France – ‘Bout Money

YouTube · FranceMusic

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