Orelsan chose the sight (“Regarde”) to punctuate the introduction of his hard-hitting sound The smell of gasoline, extract from the long awaited Civilization, unveiled this Friday, November 19. But if by his moralizing posture and pushing open doors the rapper from Caen divides the critics, the production of the project, signed Skread and Phazz, his longtime acolytes, nevertheless has the merit of offering a daring musical palette. So let’s focus on hearing instead and “listen”.
Skread behind the decks
Orelsan has always proclaimed loud and clear his eclectic musical tastes. “Weird electro, Kanye West, The Weeknd, Tyler the Creator, Adele, because I’m a fan of piano vocals, and Lana Del Rey for her melancholy. I have hyper-broad tastes, he confided at the end of October in an interview at the Parisian. In France, I love Gazo. “
And it is the influence of the latter, precursor of drill in France, that we find from
the first piece of Civilization entitled Shonen. Soft piano and snare drum with irregular rhythm, characteristic of the musical genre coming straight from Chicago… Orelsan surfs on the style in vogue in French rap at the moment and revamps it in Caen style.
Like his very varied musical inspirations, the rest of the rapper’s project from Caen is rich in surprises. He reconnects with his taste for streams, devoid of refrain in Manifesto, try his hand at pop song with Fuck the world or re-appropriate the disco in Babyboa. Behind this clever musical mix, hides the discreet but omnipresent Skread on the decks, accompanied on the more electro tracks by the Lyon producer Phazz.
By marrying rap with house, afro or French song, Skread – famous for his work with Booba, Rohff or even
Diam’s on the famous The Dumpling – proves once again in this fourth album that its complicity with Orelsan is capable of giving birth to the most creative and daring pieces.
Outreach across the Atlantic
In twelve years of career Orelsan has had time to shape its image, in particular by offering itself to the big names in music: Stromae,
Nekfeu,
Damso… But the rapper may multiply collaborations, it is insatiable. Passionate about rap and music from very diverse horizons, the Caen rapper is a real fan of US rap, especially The Neptunes, – an American producer duo famous for their collaborations with the top of world pop – of which he also mentions the name in the documentary Never show that to anyone.
So it’s a bit like a kind of symbolic prophecy that Orelsan signs in Civilization a featuring with the tandem formed by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo on the track Last drink. “They are on the album, it’s crazy! In my first songs, I quoted them, we were huge fans with Skread, it’s my favorite band and they had a sick impact on current music ”,
specified Orelsan at Parisian.
If for the moment the rapper has decided not to reveal more information on the why and how of this unusual collaboration, the last production of the duo for the pieceGreen Juice American rapper A $ AP Ferg gives the level of achievement achieved by Orelsan.
So, after Ron Thal’s presence on Lost in advance, Dizzee Rascal in The party is over, The Neptunes come to complete the loop, or almost, for those who have for their ultimate dream a featuring with Eminem.