” Who would’ve believed that ? » Faithful to his modesty, Jul launches with these words the teaser of Decade, the surprise album – his thirtieth – released this Friday to mark the tenth anniversary of his career. Who would have believed that Jul, initially mocked, would impose a style, a flow, a brand to the point of becoming essential and the biggest seller of French rap records. “It’s the crazy story of a kid from Saint-Jean-du-Désert who smashed everything,” summarizes Julien Valnet, author of the book. MARCH on the history of Marseille hip-hop. When he published it in 2013, “Jul is just a small rapper among dozens of others” and “local rap is a bit at the bottom of the wave”. “I ended by saying that we will have to reinvent something. »
That year, Jul released a single, a prelude to his first album from February 2014, In my paranoia. Everything is there: autotune, a form of melancholy, heady beats. The clothing style too, which contrasts with the rap aesthetic of other districts of Marseille and Ile-de-France. “Jul has a UFO side but he doesn’t come out of nowhere either, there is this training center that is Ghetto Phénomène, and all the connections with a certain Marseille rap from the 2000s,” remarks Emmanuelle Carinos, doctoral student at the University of Paris, in a broadcast of France Culture dedicated to the artist.
In 10 years of career, more albums than IAM
“He is someone who overcame criticism through hard work and remaining true to himself,” she continues, recalling the “sincerity pact” that characterizes him: “What comes first for him , it’s not the technique, it’s really the emotion. It goes straight to the heart, straight to the emotions. » For her, the successive releases of albums, at the frantic pace of two per year, “are of the order of necessity”. In ten years of career, Jul has released more albums than IAM in thirty years.
“Beyond the phenomenon, it is its development model which is extraordinary”, notes Julien Valnet for his part: his independent label D’or et de platinum, created in 2015, is the first to make more streams than the big industry. So much so that there are not many people left to criticize the Marseille rapper, even in the United States, where Organized Band was even broadcast during the NBA match between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Utah Jazz in January 2021. “From the moment Le Rat Luciano did a featuring with him, all the detractors shut their mouths,” assures Julien Valnet. The guy, he folded the game. » And if one more sign was needed, Le Rat Luciano is one of the featurings of Decadejust to properly celebrate its tenth candle.