Well well, it worked.
I made this playlist mid 2020 after some people started asking me for a primer to French rap. Initially, I thought about doing something chronological but then I chose to start where I started - early 2017 and mostly add in songs I enjoyed, vetted on vibes, plus a couple of the trending songs of 2020.
My most favorite songs on this list are “Idole” by ISHA and Dinos and “Medellín” by TripleGo.
There’s an urgentness and reflectiveness to “Idole” that is beautifully brought to life with Dinos’s verses. It was the soundtrack to most of 2020 for me. M.Oliver writes here that ““Idole” is the second single from Isha’s upcoming La Vie Augmente Vol. 3 project, due January 2020. Produced by Ray Da Prince, the cultured emcee reflects on his internal struggle and the false illusions of fame (“Don’t be like us, we’re not idols/live a long life, we’re gonna die young”).”
Medellín is similarly reflective. In November of 2018, an Uber driver in Paris, bemused that I was in town for French rap told me that I was listening to “shit” and that real French rap was being created by his friends. Intrigued, I asked him for a listen and to date, this is my soundtrack for the rain.
Since that initial encounter, a few singles and two albums later, I count myself amongst the potogos that TripleGo regularly wesh or salaam to on their Instagram. Their aesthetic is dark af, giving me 21Savage’s horror rap vibe but with a tuareg flair. Even their chant like intonations on some tracks, led by Sanguee coupled with unique rai, trap, dancehall, reggaeton inspired beats by Momo Spazz have a very singular hypnotic effect. David McKenna writes here: “Lyrically too, TripleGo exist in their own, self-contained universe – frequently the theme seems to be solitude, fighting one’s corner, whether it’s in business or relationships. The language is often hard, defensive, but also admits to inner turmoil, doubt and vulnerability – “it’s you I needed, nothing was going right.””
My least favorite song on this list is “X2” by twinsmatic and SCH and I know some folks might come for me but there’s something about the delivery of that track that I can’t quite enjoy. However, it felt like sacrilege to not add in an SCH track given his virtuosity.
Enjoy ✌️