They are there. At the end of this rainy afternoon in Paris, the complete Assault Sexion is gathered in the Salle Pleyel. Oh, not for a gig, not yet, but to talk about their plans. The group will return next year with a major tour initially scheduled for 2021 and postponed because of the Covid-19, but also with a new album, ten years later. The Apogee. Gims, Black M, Maska, Barack Adama, Lefa, JR O Crom and Doomams settle in to answer all of 20 minutes, or almost, for their first interview all together in ten years … And they are obviously delighted to be reunited and very comfortable with each other. Gims, him, moves back slightly and leaves the floor to his comrades. But all seem on the same wavelength and share the same desires: to find their fans and prove that they can do even better than ten years ago.
Because the big comeback of Sexion by assault is a bit like the sea serpent of French rap. Sometimes one of its members announces the reformation of the group, sometimes another portends the opposite. Last May, Gims was even categorical with
Rap Punchline : “There will be no next Sexion d’Assaut album”, he asserted. But ultimately, this return will indeed take place. “There is sure, says Black M. We have all made it official, we all put it on our networks at the same time for the first time in more than ten years. Before that there were some small internal complications… ”Because of contractual problems with the Wati B label and some difficulties in reconciling the schedules of each other. But as Maska explains, for all “it has become a priority to do this return of the kings “.
“Our music is better today”
But why come back now, after so many years of absence? “Whatever happens, we don’t do it to force it, we do it because we want to do it,” says Barack Adama. It was very complicated before because there were careers that were being formed and that shouldn’t be broken. Everything fit together at the right time. That’s wonderful. There is also this desire to turn a page. “Finishing a chapter that started in 2002 is a beautiful 20-year story. Without the Return of kings there would really be a taste of unfinished business I think. For the public and for us. And there this feeling of going all the way is very satisfying, ”explains Maska.
Coming back a decade later also raises the question of the identity of the group, whose members have all taken their own flight. For Maska, the Sexion style of assault “has evolved a lot”. “Of course there is a common basis, the voice print, the style of writing,” he admits. But in our personal careers we have understood a lot of things. Me for example, I was content to make verses of sixteen bars and after in my career I had to learn to sing, to make refrains… When we come back and we find ourselves in the studio there is this same alchemy but with that little extra, that learning and that knowledge. Our music is better today. “
“The fans ask for the Sexion assault from the start, from the kickage”
The fans of the first hour should however find the paw of the group: the technique and the kick. “We talk a lot about our first freestyles, at the time there was very little freestyle done like that in front of the camera. And I feel like the fans are asking for that, that early assault Sexion, the kickage. I think that’s what they’re going to take, ”said Lefa, causing his cronies to laugh.
Spectators will discover it during their tour across France from March 25 and May 14 and 15 at Paris La Défense Arena. The rappers will present their great hits, excluded but also titles from their new album to come. Barack Adama is impatient:
“Since we made the announcement, I can’t wait for the album to come out. To show it to people, reassure those who ask to be reassured and convince those who are skeptical. If there is really one thing that has not changed, it is this slightly sporting state of mind that we have, we are competitors with ourselves. Our only competitor is us, we are trying to do better than what we did yesterday. This is our challenge and I think we will succeed. “
No single for the moment
However, the group does not lose in mind that since their separation, the rap scene has changed a lot. And that we will have to prove ourselves again despite the impact that Sexion by assault had at the dawn of the 2010s. “We come back and it’s as if we were starting from zero,” believes Lefa. The past is the past. Ok, everyone recognizes that we have contributed to a lot of things but the music has evolved, there are a lot of new actors who take up a lot of space. Even today, watching young artists who were surely inspired by us, we learn a lot. The cards are redistributed and here we will show that ten years later we still know how to make music ”.
For JR O Crom, going back to a time when rap was a hit is even very exciting.
“Urban music is having its best moment and it was good that Sexion d’Assault is also part of the magical moment that this music is experiencing. When we arrived on NRJ we did not hear rap, the record companies no longer signed rappers… We are proud to have participated in opening the door to this urban industry. Today we are happy to celebrate and to come back to the moment when this music is at its peak ”.
If the fans will undoubtedly be there, what about the rap audience which has grown considerably over the past ten years and which now carries many other artists in its hearts? On stage, the question of alchemy can also arise, especially as the mega star of the group, Gims, has taken a completely different direction in recent years, favoring singing over rap. Without forgetting that for the moment, no new single has been unveiled, so difficult to get an idea about the new Assault Sexion.
“We have always rapped in an authentic way”
The group refuses to tell us more about the themes covered in the new album which is not finalized. We also couldn’t find out how many songs were already ready. “It’s too early to talk about it”, slice Lefa. “We will still provide some answers because there are a lot of questions that have arisen around the Return of kings during these ten years. There are things we are going to say in it. We have always rapped in an authentic way and we have always had a taste for the truth and inevitably there will be some in it, ”adds Maska. The truth, okay, about what?
Social tensions? Gender discrimination ? Racism ? We will have to wait patiently for the album to know if these themes will be addressed, but we already know that Sexion d’Assaut does not want to talk about politics. Just as the group refuses, ten years later, to return to its homophobic remarks in interviews and in certain texts at the beginning of its career. Our interview ends with this silence after the entourage of the group came to end our meeting when we broached the subject. “The Assault Sexion returns to its mystery, and gives us an appointment for their concerts:” There, you will see. “
On paper, the promise remains beautiful. But a few days before Christmas, impossible to know what kind of treasure awaits us with The Return of the Kings.