Dinos receives in the new offices of his record company, in the 17e district of Paris. On the wall, the letters SPKTAQLR, the name of his independent label, shine in large format. The decor seems straight out of Valid, a series that recounts the successes and twists and turns of French rap, produced by Franck Gastambide and broadcast on Canal+.
In a large room, four young employees are working on their computers around a table. All the boxes have not been unpacked since their move six months earlier from the southern suburbs.
In the office of the boss of the label, Oumar Samake, hang the gold, platinum and even diamond discs of his artists: the Orléanais Dosseh, the ex-robber with the hoarse voice Lacrim, and Dinos. At 29, the latter is a punchline aesthete (“I’m racing against a clock that’s not on time”, “The warmth of a grave, the coldness of the world”), a goldsmith of beautiful phrases.
Jules Jomby, his real name, is one of the most popular feathers in current French rap, but he doesn’t fit into any of its standard categories. Not a cheap thug, even less a clubber, and not at all the popular rapper who rocks little brothers and little sisters with easy jingles. Neither Booba, nor Jul, nor Soprano… Dinos is different, but respected by everyone.
A bridge between generations
It is enough, to realize it, to consult the list of the guests – Hamza, Laylow, Ninho, SCH, Akhenaton – of his last album, the double CD Winter in Paris, released in November, since certified gold record, to identify the artists who accompany him on stage, as on March 22 at the Zénith de Paris (Nekfeu, Damso, Tiakola and Dosseh), or who jostle to invite him on their titles (Disiz, Youssoupha, Soso Maness). So many names that embody the best of the French rap scene, all seduced by his unique writing and his style that is both fully integrated into the world of rap while constantly distinguishing itself from it.
With its 438 000 subscribers on Instagram, his concert at the Accor Arena in Paris, March 10, 2023, which is sold out, Dinos could “tell it like the Parisians”, according to its formula in the piece Four Seasons, fromWinter in Paris. Rare in rap but common in rock history (The Wall, of Pink Floyd), or French song (Story of Melody Nelson, of Serge Gainsbourg), this double concept album, one for each bank of the capital, gives an impressionist vision of the City of Light in winter.
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