 Shtar Academy was started in 2012 within the walls of the French prison at Luynes.Producer and DJ Mouloud Mansouri proposed the idea to the Aix-en-Provence Prison administration, who agreed to go ahead.Mansouri had been involved in event organization in the Toulon area through his company Fu-Jo, and had previously served a sentence between 1999 and 2008 for drug trafficking.