The festivals of this spring and this summer, including We Love Green, at the Bois de Vincennes in Paris, on June 4, are numerous to program the Parisian rapper J9ueve, 20 years old. And with him, young shoot of the label of the musician Laylow, they put forward a variant of French rap… the new wave. Yes, like the musical current carried by the Talking Heads, The Cure and other Depeche Mode from the end of the 1970s.
If the name is the same, it is because this new new wave operates on a similar principle. More melodic, using more synthesizers than the raw version of their original music, new wave rap offers a more airy hip-hop, with more intimate, less harsh themes.
J9ueve, whose real name is Jules Vincent, is one of his heroes. His first album, The most brilliant Jewel, published in March, is a good demonstration of this. Between electronica, R’n’B and rap, the young man pours out his moods as a marketing bachelor student. He describes his romantic relationships which do not succeed or end badly in The world was ours and continues with reflections on friendship.
In constant search of novelties
Jules Vincent studied rap like others music theory, starting at age 11 listening to a then famous group from the south of Paris: 1995, where Nekfeu came from. Himself grew up in the 14e district, in a rather well-to-do environment, mother working in publishing while playing the guitar, father in the pharmaceutical industry, artist sculptor in his spare time.
The future rapper takes music theory lessons, of which he claims to have no memory, learns the guitar, plays the classics of Oasis, AC / DC, then abandons the instrument for boxing and continues his assiduous listening to new rap . “Around my 13-14 years, he explains, I only listened to American rap: Lil Uzi Vert, Yung Bans… I was a little tired of hearing the same thing all the time in France. Looking for new things has become my mantra. »
He only leans on the French scene once high school, by registering on the SoundCloud music sharing platform and discovers 8Ruki and Yaya D, two strangers who will later experience a certain recognition and whose energy he likes. : “They rapped in French, but on new sounds, new productions, which we weren’t used to hearing in France and which I heard more on the US side. » The desire comes to him to take the plunge, to go to the studio to record his first song: “I’ll never forget the feeling, it just seemed so obvious to me that this is what I wanted to do forever. »
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