Fake For Real

Et si le rap n'était finalement qu'une musique comme les autres, suivant, à terme, le même parcours de normalisation que le jazz et le rock en d'autres temps ? Ainsi peut-on brutalement résumer la thèse défendue par la sociologue Stéphanie Molinero dans son livre récent, Les Publics du Rap, un ouvrage qui s'attache à démontrer que les adeptes du genre sont socialement beaucoup plus divers que les clichés les plus répandus veulent bien le laisser entendre. Explications détaillées avec l'auteur.

Dälek is not a newcomer. The group has sent us its impressive rap discharges for nearly 10 years. But as 2007 seems to be a busy year with the releases of the excellent Abandoned Language and the Deadverse Massive Vol 1 compilation, it was time for us to disclose this interview we recorded with the MC in March.

Radioinactive isn’t your average rapper. It’s been a while since we became interested in the unstoppable rap of this unusual MC who reinvented his music formula record after record. From the first recordings of Log Cabin to the recent Soundtrack to a Book, his catchiest album so far, it’s been a long way. But so far, we never had the opportunity to meet him. This is now something we've achieved.

It was difficult to catch Busdriver this day. But finally we did it. I interviewed him with the help of a German journalist after his concert on the last day of the Nördik Impakt festival in Caen, Normandy. Busdriver was a bit tired after a whole week of shows in France, but he was kind enough to answer each of our questions.

"Astronautalis is definitely a rapper who sings the occasional chorus, as opposed to a singer who dabbles in rap". This is the much relevant way the Floridian guy is introduced in a review from the All Music Guide. This difference may seem subtle, but it is capital. This is the key explanation of the personal music our Floridian guy makes. In this interview, Andy Bothwell tells us how the white battle MC he is has become the author of one of this year’s best albums.

Dan The Automator is Gorillaz, Deltron 3030, Dr Octagon and many other things. He is a music star, then. He is a very busy man. When someone tells you he is available for an interview, obviously, this does not mean he’ll share a whole afternoon with you. And you finally end up with answers that are even shorter than the related questions. And you don’t learn anything new. Anyway, let’s publish it. That’s Dan The Automator after all.

Hue is already our favourite hip hop label for the year 2006. There, in Japan, on the other side of the world, some people have decided to propose us a kind of best-of of Canadian and Belgian rap. Shin Ohsaki is the manager of Hue. We asked him to introduce himself, to tell us the story of his label and to conceal some of his next projects.

For most of us, Arizona’s hip hop scene is still to be discovered. This year, our entry point to all the exciting and promising artists from Phoenix and its neighbourhood was Avenue of the Arts’ rapper and producer Courdek through his excellent Synchronicity record. A first contact has been the opportunity for us to discover a bit more about his past, musical tastes, projects and fellows rappers from the AOTA crew.

The highly recommended Don’t Be a Martyr album released in 2004 confirmed it: Joe Rath deserves far more attention than many of his counterparts from the post Year 2K’s indie hip hop explosion. So please read the following interview of this New Jersey native and encourage him to release the new gem he hasn’t have the opportunity to record yet.

Until last year, Fingerprint Records was just a name for me, just a label I had heard of from one or two reviews here and there on the Internet. But one day, I contacted the manager of the label to tell him I had reviewed the latest Nobs album, and he proposed to send me his own solo album. Finally, I found myself with one of 2005’s nicest surprise between my hands and ears, a record named Karma Kingdom that was exactly what I was expecting from hip hop at this moment. Now, I guess there’s no use for me to tell you why I wanted to know more about this talented guy named Eibol.