“It’s as if we had cast a bad spell on Drancy. “The Big P may reflect, he can not find a rational explanation for the lack of notoriety of his city in the world of French rap. His sentence could just as easily be applied to the neighborhood rivalries that have undermined the town for more than twenty years, without any inhabitant today being able to trace the exact origin of these tensions.
Since music softens morals, may it also fight bad luck. This is the bet of the Xénon association and its leaders, Oumar and Julien. The two friends have just produced a rap album, the “Compilation 937 Drancy*”, released on February 20 and on which they have brought together 19 artists from different sectors of the city. “We’ve had this idea in our heads for a long time,” says Oumar, 40.
Since its foundation in Drancy in 2007, Xénon has worked to bring together the different districts of the town through music. “The primary goal is artistic, recalls Julien, 39 years old. When we were younger, we also rapped but we couldn’t find a studio to record ourselves. Sometimes we went to a friend’s studio in Montparnasse, but we could only use it at night, from 2 am. We had to create something closer to home. »
“Even moving from one neighborhood to another was complicated”
While waiting for their studio project to materialize, the leaders of the association have multiplied the initiatives. One of them consisted of a series of short films, the cast of which was made up entirely of locals. The idea of a rap compilation germinated much later, in 2020. A year marked in Drancy by several nights of riots between bands from the northern city and the city center.
“For a week or two, it was wartime,” recalls Loyd, alias BHF. Resident of the northern city, this rapper admits to having been “a little reluctant” before agreeing to participate in the compilation. “There were all these confusions, it was bad timing. “Especially since they brought together two neighborhoods that had always been close up to now, as Oumar recalls. “No one saw it coming,” he recalls.
Aulnay-sous-Bois, February 22, 2023. Julien (on the left) and Oumar, the leaders of the Xénon association, are at the origin of the rap compilation bringing together artists from the different districts of Drancy. LP/AA
Historically, it is between the Roger-Salengro estate, to the south of the city, and the city center that the antagonisms are strongest. According to the leaders of the Xénon association, they are sparing no sector of Drancy, although tensions are less intense than twenty years ago. “Some had to change high school or leave school because of that, illustrates Julien. Even moving from one neighborhood to another was complicated. »
According to him, these divisions could explain the absence of a leading rapper from the fifth most populous commune of Seine-Saint-Denis. “Bobigny, Aulnay, Sevran, we don’t even talk about it, La Courneuve, even Le Blanc-Mesnil: lots of artists are emerging around us, he observes. Here, if someone finds that Big P raps well but he comes from a different neighborhood than him, he will have a hard time admitting it. »
The mayor hopes to inaugurate a recording studio “before the music festival”
Oumar agrees: “The city lacks unity. For example, some of the artists in the compilation did not want to share the titles of artists from other neighborhoods. The initiative of Xénon has the ambition to reverse the reasoning. “If a rapper ends up breaking through, it will push the others up,” wants to believe the association manager.
Despite these turf wars, the compilation thus generated an “alchemy” between the artists brought together in featuring, welcomes Julien. “I accepted without ulterior motives”, confirms The Big P, a representative of Salengro whose large carcass touches the ceiling of La Boussole, a studio in Aulnay-sous-Bois where he recorded with Chapo the title “l ‘Unity is strength “.
The artists of Drancy will soon no longer have to go into exile outside their town for their musical activity. Xénon officials will manage the studio, which will open in the premises of the Casanova kindergarten, in the north of the city. “I hope to be able to inaugurate it before the music festival, announces the mayor, Aude Lagarde (UDI). Soundproofing work is in progress. »
The elected official wishes to salute the role of this “historic” structure that the municipality subsidizes each year. “Through their projects, including the last one, they have shown that there are more reasons to unite than to tear each other apart. An official recognition that will be sealed by the signing of an agreement between the city and the association.
*The compilation is only available on streaming music platforms.
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