More or less famous here are three verses that really worth your time. Either because it’s perfectly executed or because it brings a new breath to the medium, here is a list of three songs with a pinch of magic inside.
Lucio Bukowski on « Stress et Palettes » – Stress and Pallets
Lucio Bukoswki, a rappeur from Lyon, third french city, is a worker’s son. Through his work we can easily understand he saw his father getting damaged by his work and that’s why he decided to work in culture – he has a phd in music history – and hated everything nowaday capitalism brings. Luxury and bourgeoisies on top of it.
That’s where the title of the song comme from: Strass et Paillettes, which can be translated to rhinestones and sequins, is an expression describing the fame world. Here it’s a pun where stress and (industrial) pallets take places of the beauty saved for the high society, bu also an hommage to a famous french rap song Strass et Paillettes. With Robse, another Lyon’s worker, they depict here the daily life of many of them.
The song began with a brief extract from a training material for pallet truck, only to let Lucio began with a reference to Booba’s song mentionned above by reusing the chorus : « I leave and I can’t touch the bottom, fuck hinestones and sequins »1 only to follow with the hard reality « So I don’t speak about gold and don’t impersonate mobbs in jail but fathers with broken back in scealled warehouses »2
Abstract Keal Agram feat. Arm on Et la nuit s’éternise – And the night keep along
I like rap like my plates: made with surprising ingredients well mixed to surprise me. This is what I find in this track.
Produced by Abstrackt Keal Agram, a french abstract hip-hop group pretty confidential event in France lovingly mixing with the lesser known Arm. Arm was part of the group Psykick Lyrikah and has been in the rap scene for a long time with a unique style, never really slam, never just rap.
Put aside their love for convulated group names this association is in my point of view near perfect: opened with a spiky verse on a technic instrumental, arm still knows when he should stop him and leave the brass sing.
The chorus is one of these pieces of music where the beat seem to have made to complete the lyrics.
It would be too long to translate everything, but this track engraved for ever the high ending the chorus « lighting arms surrounding tree, they are dying, it may rain tears tomorrow where hear lays »3 with th flow growing slowly on the beat bringing both at an all time all… Before the night coming back. Brilliant.
NoS on Deconnecté – Disconnected
I will come one day. PNL came from nowhere and changed for ever the French rap landscape. Summarize pnl to rap would be an awful réduction, and theses lines wouldn’t be enough to describe the vibrant brother trilogy they created.
What you need to know if after reaching the top of the charts like it was a child game they seemed bitter and that’s what we can listen to this track. Especially during NOS verse. The most depressed brother bring a elegant mix of spleen and auto tune like the French rap never heard before and may never hear again…
The first phase « my left devil make his selfies, this bitch whisper me « this life is yours, take it, fuck, I’m high I filled the void »4 show us that the music hasn’t bring anything, « the family is safe, I never healed my soul »5 at least not for him
The stronger the auto tune, the deeper the spleen: « Because I wanted my place in paradise, now I took everything it wasn’t enough »6 first milestone. « 3ami [arabic word meaning uncle] I don’t have any friends, because you know: life made me too 7ami [hot, skilled] »7 second step. « In the dark I see, they want to be like me. But you know at night, I feel blue »8 in a vibrant voice, in one of the last tracks of the last album. Just enough to keep fans worried about this disconnection..
- J’me barre, et j’ai pas ‘yé-p’, nique le stress et les palettes ↩︎
- Du coup, j’te parle pas d’or, et j’représente pas d’caïd en calèches
Mais des pères au dos pété dans les entrepôts scellés
De ta démocratie libertaire qui effrite des pauvres ↩︎ - Des bras de lumières saisissent les arbres puissamment, ils se meurent, il se peut qu’il pleuve des larmes demain là ou la peur demeure ↩︎
- Mon ange de gauche veut son selfie, cette pute me chuchote cette vie
C’est pour toi, prends la, vie la, baise la, j’suis défoncé, j’ai rempli le vide ↩︎ - La miff est à l’abri, j’ai pas soigné mon cœur ↩︎
- Parce que j’voulais ma part de paradis, maint’nant qu’j’ai tout pris, ça n’a pas suffit ↩︎
- Eh 3ami
J’ai plus d’amis
Parce que tu sais la vie
M’a rendu trop 7ami ↩︎ - Dans l’ombre j’les vois, ils veulent être comme moi
Mais tu sais le soir
Je broie du noir ↩︎