The Dirty Emperor is about to surrender his crown. Six years after the release of his dirty freestyle who had made him known on the Web, Lorenzo is preparing to deliver his fourth album entitled Living legend this Friday. His best, he says. But also the last one, which he will complete with a big tour in 2023. If I did another one afterwards it would be worse than this one, it’s the end of the film, all good things come to an end. Except the weed mdr “, replied the rapper to explain this hasty retirement.
Always difficult to pin down behind his provocative, misogynistic and “dark” persona, Lorenzo never gave a “serious” interview, preferring to line up behind his Game Boy Color hat, his big glasses and his mustache. But everyone we interviewed said it: the boy is a good guy. He is above all a brilliant artist who has turned the French rap scene upside down with his ideas. For this album he released 100 different editions, including one providing a complete kit for rolling joints. “He is super innovative, he breaks the codes. He pushes the delirium to the maximum and above all, he goes to the end, ”explains Emmanuel Lebarbier, boss of Difyd2c who manages the merchandising of the Rennes prodigy.
Before getting out of his lamp, the genius Lorenzo had a lot of drool. If he never talked about his childhood, the rapper says a lot about it in his title Le Daron where he involves Jean Dujardin (eh ouai mamène). “My father drank all his RSA. He cheated on my mother, hit her. My dad was a piece of shit. I never saw this guy again, not even a message, not a call. I grew up alone with a ball in a parking lot so it wasn’t a party. “In this monstrous piece, we learn that it was his father who gave him the famous Pikachu bob before leaving when he was 5 years old. Lorenzo never saw him again. Born in Brest twenty-eight years ago under the first name Jérémie, the kid had quickly failed in Rennes. It was in the classrooms of the huge Bréquigny high school that he made friends with several members of what would become the Columbine collective. Gifted with the camera, he stages the clips of his friends brilliantly. “When he starts, there is nothing, he does everything very quickly. And the first time he plays, he fills The Floor [1.000 places] for his first concert. He is excellent, he has always known how to manage his image, ”says Matthieu Gervais, programmer of the Trans Musicales de Rennes.
“We promised to do dirty all our lives”
Since his debut in 2016, Lorenzo shares his life with his “poto Rico” with whom he shoots all his clips. An improbable duo that oscillates between venerable rap and dance in an unclassifiable style. “We met at school when we were little, I was in the process of goumé [frapper] a guy who busted his balls and he asked me if he could play with me, I said yes and we broke it to two. From there, we promised ourselves to do dirty work all our lives, ”explains the famous Rico. Has he taken the big head? “Yeah the biggest one I’ve seen, but I liked it. »
In six years, “Lolo” has turned everything upside down, inviting itself to the biggest French stages to turn everything upside down. “We had never seen that,” recalls Jeanne Rucet. In 2018, the programmer of the Vieilles Charrues had seen the phenomenon explode the Grall scene. “It was crowded, the feedback was incredible. She also praises the professional qualities of the boy and his troupe.
“Nothing is left to chance, contrary to what one might think”. But how do you explain the success of a guy who only talks about weed and sex? “Lorenzo, you feel like he’s your buddy, the guy you spend your evenings with,” says the programmer. He is so strong that he even injected the expression “mamène” into the vocabulary of those under 30.
The album he is most proud of
At the dawn of the release of his fourth album, the rapper is anything but worried. The pre-sales launched for a few weeks have exploded and it is already certain that the disc will be platinum. “Even me at the beginning I thought it was the best. And then we sent it to a lot of friends and everyone said it was my best you see. Suddenly it gave me the rage to finish it clean. In any case, it’s my album that I’m most proud of, that’s for sure,” explains the artist in his characteristic style. Before bowing out, the emperor of the dirty did not hesitate to settle the accounts of the rap planet. In the title Living legend which gave its title to the album, Lorenzo thrashes the competition. “It’s definitely my best ‘rap’ sound. There is as much punchline in this sound as in most of the discography of other rappers, ”tackles the Rennais.
The question we haven’t really had an answer to is why it was stopping. Many whisper that the character is heavy to carry as it requires energy. Would Lorenzo like to rest? He refuses to explain. “I don’t want to turn the page, in fact I just want to finish the book well. This is the last chapter and as in all good stories it is surely the most important. The end of the book will be written on the biggest French stages in January, February and March for a farewell tour that Lorenzo and Rico have already worked hard. So how will it be? “Legendary”. Eternal modesty.