It is one of the most anticipated albums of this end of the year and of this particularly busy Friday for French rap. Lacrim returns with Persona non grata, a new project that he has been teasing for several months. He first released two first titles, The immortal and Kanun, then a behind-the-scenes video of the making of the album between Barcelona, Milan and Naples. In early December, he also lifted the veil on the tracklist with a four-minute video where each title slips into a fictional dialogue between a Venezuelan journalist and the artist, in a setting worthy of a gangster movie.
A sense of direction and a love of cinema that we also find at the heart of this new album with raw and edgy rap which reveals several facets of the personality of the 36-year-old artist. Seventeen new titles which tackle betrayal, disappointment and where unspeakable regret and pain seep between the lines. 20 minutes met him a week before release.
You come back after two years of absence. What has happened to you since “LACRIM” in 2019?
From life already, and concerning music I released a mixtape in 2020 called RIPRO 4 to make the public wait a bit. I had also had somewhat mixed feedback concerning LACRIM in 2019 so we were keen to send this mixtape before this new album.
Are you done with the “RIPRO” format?
Yes it was the last one, we wanted to close the saga. RIPRO 6, RIPRO 8, it doesn’t even sound good to the ear. We close a beautiful chapter, there is a story, the name is really well known, it’s a brand, so I think we have to leave it like that.
This new album marks almost ten years of career. What place do you think you now have in music?
This is a big question. I have ten years of career and I am no longer very young …
You are not that old!
There are a lot of new generation rappers today who are very well established and are under 24 years old. Some call me “the old”. I have ten albums, ten years of career, ten projects… I think I’m a kind of… I don’t know how to explain but a dad or a boss! I am installed.
I think I read that you consider “Persona non grata” as your “best album”. Why ?
I don’t know if I said it but if you ask me now, yes I think so. Afterwards, an artist often says that his latest project is the best. I’m in the euphoria of the stuff, I just did it, I respect my music, so every time I think it’s the best. But there I still had a good head on it, we worked on it a lot. If I sum up my career, I have an album called Corleone, another Strength and honor and I think that by working on this one intentionally arrived at having a perfect balance between the two. This is what is interesting and what makes me have a more complete album than the others.
In terms of production, musicality?
Balance. I’m going to give you an example. With Oumar Samaké [le producteur et fondateur du label SPKTAQLR] we worked on RIPRO from start to finish there was a backbone. When I made the album LACRIM, I had just met him, I already had ten songs and it was difficult for us to question the project. I’m assuming you need a balance and that’s what went wrong. I offered too many things, I think there were really great songs in the album but since there was not the right balance we missed it. In Corleone, there was a lot of musicality and on Strength and honor beautiful raw pieces. And there I think we have a balance between the two.
There is indeed a very raw rap, very edgy. The titles contain a lot of anger and grudges, like “Le Cœur a mal” where you evoke the hypocrisy of certain people around you. Is it time to settle scores?
No. For me a Lacrim album which is well constructed, you arrive at the cinema, you take your popcorn, it tells a story. It goes through several moods and like in a film – I’m very cinephile – you go through lots of periods. For this song, which can recall titles like Géricault Where Vegeta on the last album, it needed something a little artisanal and really emotional. It also needed this somewhat cinematic thing. I cannot reveal everything but maybe in the future this music could stick to a film. A film about revenge, a scenario in which I would be really weak for a year or two, reclusive in another country while waiting for my revenge.
But don’t you have the feeling that anger infuses this album a lot? There is also the question of betrayal which comes up in particular with the title “Persona non grata” where you say: “The betrayal believe me that it hurts especially when people are dear to us”.
Betrayal, disappointment, a torn heart yes, a lot. But anger no. I think I’m a bit more reflective. If I managed to write beautiful things on this album, I think it’s because I took a lot of perspective, on my life and on the prospect of seeing things. On the other hand, I have to remove this anger so that I can really express the disappointment. Sometimes when we are angry we just do bullshit, it is well known. No, I’m not angry.
In subtext a lot of suffering emanates from this album. An emotion that’s more difficult to tackle head on than anger for you?
Of course, it’s modesty. I try to be a rock and I think if I go into these feelings, I will show weakness to people. That’s why with Persona non grata, it’s the first time I’ve done a song like this, really. A song where I can show you my disappointment, where you can understand it directly. Where you’re not going to get a picture of an angry guy going to be in bad energy and you’re not going to really understand the weight of the pain that’s inside.
As you get older, are you able to express yourself better at this level?
Yes, but it’s not necessarily a matter of age since I was mature at a very young age. It’s my stability today and the fact that I manage to take things less to heart and with hindsight and that allows me to no longer be blinded by a kind of impulsiveness. Which has caused me a lot of default so far.
There are not only pessimistic sides to this album, there are also some rays of light when you mention your family and loved ones.
Family is very important. For a long time I could not take advantage of them, for a year I see them very often so I am very happy. I’m talking about my mother, my father. Sometimes we get lost in a super ephemeral life, but the family is all that is true.
Looking for more stability?
It’s something I’ve always missed. I have never had stability in my life. I have been stable there for a year, thanks to my family.
Why did you call this album “Persona non grata”?
I think I am really seen like that in France. I’m not necessarily talking about rappers, maybe a little bit, but it’s more in relation to people, to public opinion. I get blamed for a lot of rumors… In fact I’m a super simple person, I live my life like everyone else. There are a lot of fantasies and myths around me, bad. So I think I’m a bit of the ugly duckling.
Before the album, you unveiled a video in which you say: “The prisons, our humiliations, our mothers who cry, the lack of money … We all did not choose that”, you answer . Was there a desire to provide the keys to understanding?
Sure. We tried to take a few pictures and unravel them. I am not apologizing for anything, I am just telling a part of my life. If I had experienced it elsewhere I would have told it differently. I don’t value anything, I’m just telling how it goes.
In terms of form, this video refers to the interview with Jacques Mesrine at “Paris Match” at the end of the 1970s. A personality that fascinates you or with whom you identify in a certain way?
He is a person who fascinated the French. He has an incredible journey, love him or hate him. But I was above all Vincent Cassel, beyond Mesrine. It’s the acting and how he got to soak up the character. I didn’t know Jacques Mesrine, I was born in 1985, I saw videos of him later. I got to know him through Vincent Cassel, this role as an actor fascinated me as well as this interview where he goes from laughter to nonchalance.
The cinematographic universe and the series, especially around the mafia and the gangsters, permeate your music a lot. Would you like a career in cinema?
To tell the truth I have preferred cinema to music since I was little. I am very cinephile. Everything is a bit cinematographic in my texts and the way of seeing things, when you listen it’s very colorful. The music fell on me a bit like that, but if I had been able to choose I would have chosen the cinema, without hesitation.
Have you already had proposals? You notably made an appearance in “Validated”.
Yes, but that was more for the rap movement. I come to play my role of Lacrim, I have no role, it is an intervention. I had two or three other offers that I turned down but maybe I shouldn’t have.