“When I was younger, I wanted to become a footballer”

You discovered rap when you were a child, thanks to your brothers who were themselves rappers. What memories come back to you from this period?

“I remember that day when my brother was going to do a battle, he didn’t want me to go and then my mother convinced him. It was my first time on stage. As he had lost in the semi-finals, I was able to go back down to the audience to admire the finalists. It was very impressive. When you listen to music at home you don’t realize how much on stage the pieces can release something else. »

“Rap is music that people adapt to their environment”

Did you have other vocations or desires apart from music?

“When I was younger, I wanted to become a footballer, but unfortunately life means that you don’t always do what you want. I found myself studying sociology at the University of Montpellier and then at that of Nancy. Then the rap more or less started to work. »

You have a predilection for American rap, New York in particular. What is lacking today for you in this genre in France?

“The particularity with , to their environment. People in New York do rap in a certain way because rap comes from New York. I don’t expect the French to do exactly like in New York but I think that this pure form is very inspiring and can do good for the French scene. There are already a few artists who come close to it, like Nekfeu or Alpha Wann. »

“I really like Juliette Armanet’s latest album”

For this third edition of the VYV, rap is in the spotlight. Which rappers do you like in this lineup and why?

“There’s Laylow, a very, very big French rapper, Lala & Ce, who I really like, there’s also Gazo who brings something really fresh, Eddy de Pretto also does something very poetic. I also like Juliette Armanet a lot. It’s not rap for once but I like his last album, this disco side was a bit lacking in the French scene. It’s quite original.”

Could you summarize your creative process, which you also talk about in the new series #encore on the YouTube channel of your label Mocabe Nation?
“In general I don’t write if I don’t have the music. I leave from there, it’s like a kind of person who whispers in my ear what I have to say. I usually sit, listen and listen to the music again for one or two hours, but it can last up to several days. It’s like a revelation, I know immediately what I want to say. »

You have proclaimed yourself “best rapper in France” and do not miss the opportunity to provoke other rappers in your texts, from Booba to the Marseilles of SCH, Nul and Naps. Why this desire?

“I think it’s to put a little spice in a rap that has become, not bland but a little too cool. I tell myself that we have to motivate each other. When I listen to a Gazo album, I want to make a better album than Gazo’s. Not because I think Gazo isn’t a good artist, but because I follow the same discipline as him and I want to do better. Today when there is Rolland Garros, the objective of Nadal or Federer is to play in the final, and to win it. They don’t come just to trade for fun and that’s my goal too. It’s not to crush others but simply to be better than them. »

“I would love to work with a rock band”

Since the release of your second EP, you have chained collaborations: from Selah Sue to Dinos, passing by Vladimir Cauchemar, or Seth Gueko, more recently. Who would you like to work with next?

“I would love to work with a rock band, or a rocker or a rocker. Rock has an energy that hip-hop lacks today. There is something deep, deeply rooted. I’ve already done a track with Vladimir Cauchemar, who is a DJ who plays house and electro, and the collaboration worked quite well. So I would like to open up to other styles. Christine and The Queen or Indochine for example, I like it! »

The title of your latest EP refers to the world of football. What links do you see there with that of rap?

“The performance, the spirit of competition. Style differences. Del Piero, who was an Italian soccer player, doesn’t have the same style as Cristiano Ronaldo, for example. It’s a bit of an analogy, we all do the same discipline but ultimately we practice it in a different way. But there is always the same objective: to work to be the best. »

“This album, it will look like me”

Youtuber Theodore recently parodied you, helping to make you even more famous. How did you experience this parody?

“I experienced it well, Theodore is someone I admired, whom I already knew. I didn’t know he was going to parody me and when he did, I thought it was funny. Then I said to myself that it would be good to invite him to a festival to go on stage with me and finally it was his manager who contacted me and told me that he was doing a kind of series on his YouTube channel and that he needed me on it. To avenge myself a little, I gave him my conditions: that he comes to Montpellier. He was in Chicago, he traveled, he came and we did it. He’s a very good guy, with a very good spirit. »

After these three EPs, these short formulas, what will your first album look like and when will it be released?

“I don’t know when it will come out yet but what I can say for sure is that it will look like me already. And since music is also a question of state of mind, it will surely reflect the state of mind in which I am at the moment and in the coming months. »

And how are you feeling right now?

” Determined. Glad to be alive, because hey, there’s war not far away. I’m in Dijon, I’m going to play in front of people, some know, some don’t know. It’s interesting. »

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