What is the common point between Phantom by Rim’K, In the legend of NLP, polaroid express of Youssoupha or even JVLIVS of CHS? Behind these four album covers hides one and the same man: Fifou. For nearly twenty years, he has been one of the best-known photographers of French rap, with more than 800 covers to his credit. “But it’s been at least 10 years since I really counted,” he told 20 minuteswho interviewed him a few days before his participation in the L2P Convention which begins on Wednesday.
Next Saturday, it will be among the meetings of the second edition of this convention dedicated to hip-hop (the program is to be discovered this way), and will look back on his two rich decades immortalizing the biggest names in French rap. In the meantime, the “coverman”, as he calls himself, has agreed to tell his story through several of his most famous album covers.
The very first cover: “The future is ours” by Kool Shen (2005)
“At the time Kool Shen had his label “IV my people” and I worked a lot with the artists he produced, including the group of Specialists, made up of Tepa and Princess Aniès who is a friend of mine. I was not yet a professional photographer, I took a lot of photos for magazines but really purely self-taught, without any real equipment. Kool Shen had to organize a shoot for the release of this single and for press photos, it had to be done by another photographer. In the end he couldn’t come and they called me 2-3 days before to offer him to me. I was downright motivated but I had no notion of studio work. I arrived with no preparation at all, like a parachute jump. I met a light assistant who supported me on this shoot, everything went really well except that I didn’t have masses of clear photos, I was doing a lot of blurring because I had trouble adjusting my device. And there’s this photo, it’s the end of the session. Knowing him it wasn’t something Kool Shen liked to do, in the end he gave me the middle finger and it ended like that. »
The changeover: “Paradise murdered” by Lino (2005)
“One project in particular allowed me to meet all the French rap artists. It was around the same time, it was a compilation titled Illegal Project produced by two music producers named Medeline. They had the ambition to bring together 90% of the biggest French rap artists, it went from Booba to Diam’s, Ministère AMER, Nèg’ Marrons, 113, Stomy Bugsy, Disiz la Peste, Ärsenik… I worked in duo with another photographer and I took care of the AD of this compilation. Each time the artists came to record their songs, I met them and I shot them. Apart from the fact that it was a big project, I mainly made contact with these people and that allowed me to work with Nessbeal, Sector Ä… That was the key element. Lino d’Ärsenik’s album called murdered paradise was my first real big record label commission as an artistic director. »
The art of staging: “Strength and Honor” by Lacrim (2017)
“4-3 years ago, I was called upon a lot for directing. I have a lot of film references, posters and sequences that have marked me, which I have re-digested in my own way for covers. There is necessarily Strength and honor de Lacrim, where we were really in a completely cinematographic thing in the sense that I had a set built, with a light shower and something very pictorial. It’s very Scorcesian and these are hugely iconic films for the French rap scene. »
Return to a more refined style: “Stamina” by Dinos (2020)
“Lately I have been working more in symbolism and emotion. It’s more refined. There is always a connection with the cinematic side in the light, like Stamina of Dinos that I shot a bit like a stills photographer. We are close to documentaries but also to Clint Eastwood and this type of very grainy film. It’s a much less polished light but it makes the photo more timeless. These are things that interest me more, to work again with film and succeed in doing something iconic and very simple at the same time. »
The “punchline” cover: “In the hands” of ZKR (2020)
“When I say iconic, it’s to think about something very ‘punchline’ as we say in rap. It’s the idea of having a symbol, a gesture, a look, a detail that makes it stand out. The artist ZKR had done a project called In the hands and I don’t know why, when he told me about it, I imagined him arm wrestling with a policeman. It came out at a time when there were a lot of issues around everything that happened in the neighborhoods with the police, and this link was a bit difficult. For me it’s a punchline cover in the sense that, without necessarily putting a political thing behind it, I wanted it striking, simple and effective. We don’t know if he is making peace, if he is at war. I wanted to put the artist and the cop on the same level, we don’t really take sides. »
“We can also talk about punchline with the cover of BLO of 13 blocks. These are artists who have spoken a lot about their neighborhood of Sevran, I wanted to keep this grain and this somewhat gloomy universe and bring back something that shines. I wanted to make them shine in the ghetto with this chandelier. »
The cult cover: “In the legend” of PNL (2016)
“At that time I was very involved in the process of calling for tenders from labels, it was mainly organized meetings. PNL them, have reversed the steam a little in the sense that they made a call for tenders on their social networks. I told myself that maybe it was time to adapt, to stop waiting to be called to propose, but to try to get out of my comfort zone. I put myself in the audience’s shoes and came up with lots of ideas. The idea was to do a photo shoot but it didn’t happen and I never met them. But there was so much fluid communication that I didn’t experience it badly in the creative process. Today there are plenty of artists that you don’t necessarily see and it’s going really well. We see each other during the shoot but neither before nor after. Everything is done remotely now, and especially since the Covid where we spend our lives making calls or Zooms. They were visionaries at that level in the end. »
The magic cover: “Imany” by Dinos (2018)
“With Dinos or Youssoupha, we often had shoots where we left room for accident and improvisation. It created moments and moments that were quite fusional and crazy for us. On Imany for Dinos, the shoot must have lasted half an hour but it was intense in emotions. Everything was done naturally, the light was magnificent… We took a group photo with his friends and everything was done without preparation, without stage work. Every time I changed angles he was naturally in the center, everyone surrounded him, there was something magical. »
“I had the same thing with 13 Block and recently with the 667 collective, notably Freeze Corleone. They work a bit like the Americans, there isn’t a lot of preparation, but they know exactly what they want and what to bring out in the image. It’s a kind of organized brothel quite incredible to live. Something pretty crazy is going on, and I had the same thing with Lala & ce. They have a fluid, a karma… I don’t know what you can call it. These are things that do me good because sometimes we are on ultra-organized shoots with managers, producers, etc., like on advertising shoots, and we don’t find that magic. »
Viral covers: “Land” by Kekra and “Monument” by Alkpote
“The impact I had on Kekra… I remember on the internet it was incredible, I received messages from everywhere, from Americans, from English… I had the same with Sadek when we did VVRDL where I had shot him with two grannies who were counting banknotes next to him. We had hit the internet.
There was the Alkpote cover too, Monument, where I had squeezed it out of a giant vulva. On the networks, people said to themselves “but what did they do? ! “(laughs) It’s still cool actually. I consider him a bit like Philippe Katerine, you have fun, you go all out and you break all the codes. »