Flashmag August 2018 www.flashmag.net
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Laughs ... you know what's weird we never see ourselves like people see us, I do not know if I'm nonconventional or that… I see myself it's true like someone who's struggling. it's true works a lot in adversity, but who somehow uses this adversity to go further, to raise the bar. It’s always better to try perfection when the norm seems to exclude you. I do not take it as something special, but it is a personal standard that I have imposed on the general standard. Since the days of Trop de Bla Bla every time I went out, a project had always been very complicated. The chance that I had is that with the success of Trop de Bla Bla, I reached a wide audience who never left me until today ... good when I arrived in the French music variety scene, of course the artists welcomed me with open arms, but the problem is at the level of the institutions, and this is not always racism but simply as you underlined above, compliance, means that they expect a certain kind of products so when we come up with something out of the ordinary, it is not always obvious. The originality is probably always to be who I am. I never wanted to wear a mask, disguise or distort my musical projects, and it takes a certain courage to resist some pressure. In addition, it takes more time and energy to play a role than to be true.
First black woman to make Reggae in French with the hit Trop de Bla Bla and the album “il faut que travail” (I have to work) in the 90s are still works of reference, it seems that past the surprise effect of the 90s, the conformism seems to have curbed the rise of the so-called black music in France. We are in 2018 outside the big names of the 90s like you, Kassav, or Mc Solaar which remain visible, one has the impression that there was not a renewal of the elites of black music in France. About you why?
I do not agree with what you say ...
It's an impression and the numbers seem to prove it
Well I'll enlighten you on the subject. the 90s have seen the explosion of urban music and artists there have been a pleiad of all kinds and of all the tastes, from Ragga muffin, RnB through the hard-core Rap and others. Musicians were more from the African emigration. so, multiculturalism was only for
a certain stratum of the French population, although some white artists also followed the wave. Ophelie Winter or Larousso in the genre, more pop. In addition, there was this law that forced the French radios stations to play 40% of French music so we had a lot of artists who had their breakthrough ... NTM, Le Ministere Amère, KDD, Stomy Bugsy and many others. However, for pure French variety, there has not been transshipment of talents, the blacks if we must say the word, have remained confined to a genre. And it has crisped things. But in the years 2010, the deal began to change, we saw the guys from the Sexion d’Assaut, as Maitre Gim's, embrace all genres, make a kind of rap of variety accessible to all type of public.
It cannot be said that there is not enough immigration represented in music, I would rather say that there are not enough black women in French music . It's true there are girls like Ibeyi who claim a certain status, and of course there is progressive urban music that is popularized with artists like Shy'm, who put herself on a level that has nothing to envy to Americans. I say where are the women? for example there is no big black diva in France, yet I know extremely talented women, but they do not have simply access to the mediatization and the big structure of production. What worries me is especially that ... this absence of women of color
Apart from Shy'm there is Melissa Nkonda who seemed to have brought a lot of hope but since then I do not know how she got lost ...
Yes I follow her, she post a lot of nice video where she performs and all that. She is good but like the other behind there is no big machine that can really push them to the top.
Well the problem is especially in the media we do not have a national radio that can support our projects. good we have Africa number 1, tropic FM and others but at the national level it is not obvious. they always tell us your project is good, but in fact they do not air our music if yes, very little ...
That's what I was talking about, that in the 90s there were radios that played black music, NRJ, Skyrock, and other music and even TV channels like MCM Africa ... So, some medias like MCM