To 39 years old, Lee-James Edjouma already has a prestigious curriculum vitae. The Frenchman of Cameroonian origin was one of the most prominent rap producers in the United States (he collaborated with heavyweights such as Snoop Dogg, Akon, Puff Daddy, Ja Rule or, in France, Booba, Soprano …) when he founded, with his partner, the agency Grown Kid, producing music for advertisements (Prada, Yves Saint Laurent…) and films (The West Indian Gang, The Taulard…). Hidden son of saxophonist Manu Dibango (disappeared in 2020), he was the first artist to sign on the label of actor, rapper, DJ and sex symbol Idris Elba under the name of James BKS (for “Best Kept Secret” ). Mixing hip-hop, afro-pop, bouncy beats and engaging choirs, his tracks are as positive as they are euphoric. There appear, among others, Will.I.Am, Q-tip, Little Simz, Idris Elba, Charlotte Dipanda, Gracy Hopkins, Mila J, Allan Kingdom and his late father Manu Dibango, whom he only knew in 2012 (the unexpected meeting will end well since James BKS will accompany his father on tour for the last seven years of his life). A first album to swallow like a cure for vitamin D.
Wolves in Africa – Part 1 (Polydor). In concert at the Festival du bout du monde on August 5 in Crozon.
Fly like the phoenix
Classy! Phoenix, the group of rockers from Versailles who are a hit abroad, are in the studio to record their seventh album and, since their latest album, Ti love, melted us like one gelato in a Fiat in full sun, we are impatient with the idea of discovering these new songs at the start of the school year. Fortunately, the quartet makes us wait with a new title, the first after two years of silence, the aptly named “Alpha Zulu”, inspired by the words of an airplane pilot in his radio while his aircraft was in the middle of a storm. . This heady and bouncy electro-pop-disco nugget has already accumulated more than 3 million streams. An auspicious bird.
In concert on November 28 and 29 at the Olympia.
READ ALSOPhoenix: “We wondered about the futility of our work”
Go clubbing with Beyoncé
Finely inspired by the return to vogue of voguing and house, Queen B has unveiled an astonishing excerpt from her long-awaited new album, Renaissance, fueled by the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement (which had already inspired the song “Black Parade”). The 40-year-old Texan, wife of Jay Z and global superstar with 185.5 million albums sold (she’s one of the most powerful women in the world), craves lightness and joy. On a sample of the essential nightclub hit of the 1990s “Show Me Love” by Robin S, she repeats like a mantra “you won’t break my soul”. Thanks to this title, Beyoncé is the first singer to have placed more than 20 songs in the top 10 of the American charts, exceeded only by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney. Something to shake up his “Bootylicious”.
Renaissance (released July 29 on Sony)
BTS to master his choreography
Girls and boys swoon over these smooth-faced youths, who move like gods, take care of their looks and their hair. With over 20 million albums sold, BTS is the most popular South Korean band in history. The boy band is squarely cited as one of the sources of vitality for the economy of its country and local tourism… It must be said that BTS has largely contributed to bringing Korean pop, or K-pop for short, out of its borders. They filled the Stade de France twice. These young boys, trained in dance, singing and performing by Big Hit Entertainment (which has become the leader of the genre), are also superstars in the United States, while they sing in Korean: they appear in the list of 100 most influential people in the world, according to Time Magazine who has them named “Entertainer of the Year 2020”… Recognized for their performances and the way they interact with their millions of fans (nicknamed Army), the group has established themselves as an icon of 21st century pope century, in particular thanks to its neat choreographies replicated on TikTok, the favorite social network of young people. Before announcing a “break” allowing them to devote themselves to their solo projects, they released an anthology, proof, with the single “Butter”, number 1 for ten weeks, breaking records in twenty-four hours with 108 million views. It is one of 3 songs out of 350 to be sung in English, a Trojan horse to conquer the charts of the world, where they enter like butter.
proof (Polydor)
READ ALSOBut what do they all have with boy band BTS?
Driving a convertible with JB Dunckel
At 52, with an eternal chestnut lock carefully tucked over his forehead, Jean-Benoît Dunckel has the phlegmatic assurance of a sphinx and a youthful suppleness. After studying mathematics and teaching physics at college in Versailles, he was, for twenty years, half of the group Air, with which he sold 6 million records. Exhausted by tensions in the studio, the duo went their separate ways. Since then, JB Dunckel has produced young bands, released three solo albums and composed film music (notably for the documentary Capital of the XXIe centuryseries myth or the movie Summer 85 by François Ozon, which earned him a nomination for Caesar 2021). In Carbon, his new manifesto-like opus explores the vital and universal relationship between the element carbon and human beings. “Corporate Sunset” is an instrumental epic inspired by the spirit of conquest and corporate power that makes you want to hop into a convertible towards the horizon and press the button. “The melodies on this album obviously have an atmospheric, floating side,” says JB Dunckel. The hallmark of Air…
Carbon (Prototype Recording)
Eat a Lizzo flavored ice cream
Since the release of his third album (Cuz I Love You2019), Lizzo made the most stuck buttocks vibrate to the rhythm of her irresistible R&B-pop-funk hits (“Juice”, “Truth Hurts”, “Soulmate”…) with messages of self-esteem and self-esteem. body positivity. At 34, Melissa Viviane Jefferson (her real name) plays in her songs about her problems with her body, boys, and the color of her black skin. It must be said that she had a hard time: originally from Detroit, she was homeless and had a depression, before climbing the slope by starting to accept her forms. Today, his good humor is contagious. Enough to make your two-ball cone twerk.
Special (WEA)
Look at the sea while listening to Interpol
Born in New York in 1997, Interpol succeeded in making the Big Apple the capital of rock in the early 2000s, bringing in its wake guitar strings The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, The National… Twenty years after the release of its first album, Turn on the Bright Lights, the ex-quartet, which became a trio (in leaving, its bassist Carlos Dengler described his experience with the group as a state of post-traumatic stress), will unveil on July 15 a seventh post-punk opus of a dark energy produced by Flood and Alan Moulder (U2, New Order, Depeche Mode…). In his contemplative lyrics, singer Paul Banks, a former NYU literature student, explores the state of the world, its resilience, its flashes of hope. A disc that sticks to the skin like total screen.
The Other Side of Make-Believe (Matador)
DJ Snake signs the hit of the summer
DJ Snake, the most listened to French artist in the world, pays tribute to the famous Oran label and its founder who, in the 1980s, introduced the world to raï and its singers Cheb Mami and Cheb Khaled… A few days after the posting of “Disco Maghreb”, the clip shot in Algeria has already accumulated 24 million views. A better start than “Let Me Love You”, the success composed by DJ Snake for Justin Bieber (a few billion plays), or those he produced for Lady Gaga, Pitbull, Selena Gomez, Cardi B… Normal, with its notes of gasba (reed flute popular in the Maghreb) and darbuka, “Disco Maghreb” is simply irresistibly dancing.
“Disco Maghreb” (Capitol)