Among the pool of Marseille rap, Provence unearthed five rappers and rappers who will make the musical news of tomorrow. These five artists from different universes were the subject of a series produced by our journalist Edson Pesce, to be discovered on our website and our social networks.
Whether they come from the northern, southern or central districts, they each have a lucid view of their city, and a strong attachment. Through their daily life, their clips, their moments of writing and their studio sessions, the documentary series reveals five personalities and paints a portrait of Marseille youth. She also explains why Marseille and rap are so linked, by addressing the recurring themes of this culture: life in the neighborhoods, youth, the desire for freedom, positions. This series sheds light on the emblematic places and figures of Marseille rap.
Panther: “Marseille is a city that clings to you”
Panther defines himself as a fairly dark rapper but does not refrain from exploring other universes. Photo La Provence
Big muscles, a dark voice and a thick chain around his neck: everything about Panther oozes trap (a darker sub-genre of rap). The rapper who participated in Kaaris Rap Planet a few years ago seems cut out for this musical genre, in which he has been evolving for a long time. But clothes rarely make the monk, even less among artists.
If he has long excelled in somewhat “old-fashioned” rap, Panther is now a repentant trapper. Not that this musical genre no longer attracts him. But the artist now wishes to turn to new horizons and add a few strings to his bow.
Far from the clichés that its image can reflect, Panther claims music without labels. “I have always done everything, he confides. But before, I only came out of the trap. Now I allow myself to release a few more other sounds“.
If he constantly touched on everything, the rapper also always advanced as a team. While he started rapping at 19, Panther has always been able to rely on a solid entourage. “They are people, they are with me 24/7, they guide me on all my choices. I’m not the kind of rapper who will say “I made myself”. We always need someone. And they are always there for me“.
Coming from the 14th arrondissement and the city center, the one who defines himself as a “little vagabond” has Marseille in his skin. “It’s a city, it looks like it clings to youhe confides. People are more and more interested in Marseille rappers because there is credibility in this city, and then there is talent“.
Talent, Panther is not lacking. Productivity either: a lot of new things are coming, which will move away a little from the trap universe. Or rather, “there are a lot of sounds in the machines“, in his words. The filming of the music video for Top Boya more funk-sounding track, is in progress.
Missan: the love of rap beyond divisions
Missan, 21, is from the city center and carries a unifying message. Photo Franck Pennant
Missan, 21, is from the city center and carries a unifying message. This city center, he knows it by heart, he who grew up at the Opera. “It’s as if it were Gaul cut in two. There is the Opera, Noailles, the Plain. And on the other side the university, the Panier, the Joliette“, he notes. While it is very varied, he wants to represent it as a whole, evoking the heritage of IAM and the Fonky Family.
Missan is a keen observer: “When you have tals, you go to rue Paradis to buy clothes, then you go back up a little and you are in Noailles, where for one euro you have three cigarettes“. It was in this perpetual contrast that he grew up. About the drama of the rue d’Aubagne, he says: “Just before this forsaken building, there was a forsaken youth.“
Missan has been immersed in rap all his life. He met Naps at the age of 10 and sharpened his pen in the writing workshops of K-Ra, a member of the rap group Sale team, organized at the cultural center “Le centipedes” at the top of the rue d’ In prison.
Since then, the young man has made his way. He looks for studios where to record, sings about his life and his values, until founding his own label in 2022, 2VL Records. He raps for the love of this music, not to carry a political message. “It’s not by rapping that we will change the world“, he thinks. His texts are very descriptive and colorful.
To hear it, it is the hallmark of the city center. Last April, Naps invited him to its Planet Rap week, on SkyRock. When he was only supposed to make one sound, Missan stayed there for several days and ended up flying away with Naps for his concert at the Olympia in Montreal on April 30. The author of La Kiffance also appears in his latest clip, Oskot, released a few weeks ago.
So La Zone: “We are angry, we want it, we have a lot to tell: it’s Marseille”
So La Zone is a child of La Castellane.Photo Franck Pennant
So La Zone is a child of Castellane, “a mini-city of 8,000 inhabitants where there is good and evil, happiness and joy, where you can see everything and nothing“. If the 24-year-old rapper has always been immersed in the rap universe, it was in his prison cell that he forged his style. His incisive texts tell of detention, his experience, his neighborhood. “We have rage, we want it, we have gone through somewhat dark periods. We have a lot to tell: it’s Marseille.”
His favorite place, where it all began, is called the porch. He is at the bottom of his neighborhood. This emblematic place, his lair, inspires him the freestyle series Go back to the porch. Released a few months ago, it has accumulated hundreds of thousands of views on Youtube. It was entirely produced with its producer, an inhabitant of the top of Castellane who became “his older brother“. So La Zone lives at home day and night to compose his music.
The young rapper also surrounds himself with L’Adjoint, a well-known beatmaker in the Marseille rap world, who has worked for SCH, Jul and Lacrim, among others. He predicts a future for him at the top. “He is a very promising artist. The strength of his rap is his street credibility, his pen and his hard work. He has all the qualities required to become a big rapper of tomorrow.”
So La Zone is also very present on social networks where he likes to share lives with its subscribers. Maintaining a real close relationship, he responds to everyone and offers tours of La Castellane in his company. He entrusted the distribution of his productions to Believe, with whom he signed last year. His latest EP The street got me was released on June 23.
Ekloz: “I like to be able to become something else with music”
Ekloz frees itself from the codes of the genre by taking us into its universe with cyberpunk accents. Photo Tom HGN
Rarely has an artist chosen his name so well. Like a butterfly hatching from its chrysalis after being a caterpillar, Ekloz shifts and transforms, is never really the same from one clip or one track to another.
The protean young woman offers an equally moving rap: posing on prods with sometimes techno and futuristic sounds, she frees herself from the codes of the genre by taking us into her universe with cyberpunk accents. “I do atypical rap, there is something a little outsider in what I doshe admits. I do something hyper current, hyper digital, with at the same time influences of conscious rap, of indie rap.”
A mix of genres and influences that guided his steps from his native Sète to Marseille a few years ago: “Me, I did not come to Marseille by chanceshe laughs. The crossroads of cultures here is too interesting. I eat this every day.”
Because, daily, the young artist is on the bridge. Her days are punctuated by rap and creation, which never really leave her. “At home, it’s in studio mode. I never write without a microphone next to me, or it’s super rare“, she specifies.
The one who started rap at the age of 15 first followed a dance course and wanted to become a choreographer. A mixture of practices and a first contact with the artistic world which explain his relationship to the body, very present in his image.
Ekloz also cites, among his influences, the singer Mylène Farmer, not so much musically as in the creation of a character, an entity. “I like the fact that I can become something else with the music“, she confides.
She has also just signed with OnlyPro, a record company with major artists in its ranks, like Louane or Soprano. A new EP, recorded at the moment, should soon see the light of day. Synonym, without a doubt, of new transformation.
OMR: rapper and actor, he collects caps
OMR is from Frais-Vallon, in the 13th arrondissement. Photo Franck Pennant
OMR is from Frais-Vallon, in the 13th arrondissement. Soon he will appear on cinema screens in the main role of the film Salempresented at the Cannes Film Festival and directed by Jean-Bernard Marlin (to whom we also owe Scheherazade).
But before that, there is rap and its neighborhood, the two are intimately linked. “Frais-Vallon is a small town. We have everything, we are the only neighborhood that has a metro.” As for his style, he sums it up in two words: “cité” et “melody“.
OMR wants to bring its neighborhood together, “welcoming and open“, and reveal his full potential. Each year, he participates in the “Festivallon”, an event to highlight artists and offer activities to all. Frais-Vallon has played a big role in his emergence on the rap scene.
“I was doing freestyles to my colleagues. When I played them to the big guys in the neighborhood, they said to me “go for real, you’re strong and all”, do you get it? For the moment, it’s a good little path, which can turn into a career why not“. The influencer Dadi la cité counts well “grow it“. Understand: help him climb ever higher. Another of the city, MH Films, ensures the production of his video clips.
The cinema, thissomething extraordinary“, broke into his life. One day, while going about his business near his home, the film crew Salem disembarks. The wild casting succeeds him, the main role is assigned to him. Filming begins:The second day, panic attack, because when you start to see the sets, the 12 cameras…“. The Cannes red carpet opens up to him.”When I walked up the stairs, I had a feeling in my heart… It was amazing.” OMR the rapper and Omar Moindjie the actor: both hats suit him well.
2023-08-30 09:27:43
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