Abd Al Malik is a rapper, author, composer, performer, writer and director. In 1988, he founded with his cousin and his older brother, the rap group NAP, for New Africans Poets. Music as an outlet, as a strong means of expression, made him want to move forward, to follow a path. An existential quest that has become a spiritual quest over time.
In 2004, released his first solo album: Face to face of hearts and in 2005, his book: May Allah bless France, acclaimed by critics, but also by the public. He recounts his journey in his desire to defend a thoughtful Islam, made of tolerance and the desire for integration.
On March 16, 2022, he will be at the Auditorium of the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique in a project, a rather special collaboration: Totentanz by Hugo Distler, composed by the conductor, Lionel Sow.
franceinfo: How did you come up with this idea of collaborating to Totentanz ?
Abdul-Malik: I am a ‘serial’ collaborator. I like collaborating, meeting artists and all of a sudden, with their universe and mine, we enter into dialogue, we exchange. In the end, we say something that goes beyond us all and brings us together. In fact, with Lionel Sow, we met at an event where he was a conductor and we discussed. A few months later, he called me and told me about the project: Totentanz and explains to me that this show is a meditation on death.
He speaks to me of the Middle Ages, of his reflection on finitude and that speaks to me, obviously, inevitably, fatally, because this reflection on finitude is mine, it is important. The fact of finally saying to yourself, we spend a short time on this planet, on this earth and what traces do we leave behind? And how do we work to make the link? And how does art finally make us accept this notion of finitude and make us be children of the moment? It spoke to me right away! He tells me about the show, wanting me to say, that I’m a storyteller, that’s what I am too. I said let’s go.
Indeed, it fits perfectly with your background, as an evidence. Totentanz means macabre in German. Work of the composer Hugo Distler, who preferred to kill himself rather than be enlisted in the German army. A piece inspired by the dance of death of Lübeck, impossible not to mention it, and burnt during the Second World War. In fact, this piece is a real act of resistance too.
It is an act of resistance against barbarism, but it is in perfect harmony with our times. And it’s true that this idea of someone who says and who ultimately represents death, the flute who also represents death, but there is a choir, etc. It is both an individual and collective reflection, how do we transcend, do we overcome existential angst? And at the same time, how should we take all this into account? For me, it really resonates with what we are experiencing today, a period of uncertainty, a period of epidemic, but not just a concrete epidemic, there is also a form of ideological epidemic, in a way.
In this musical piece, you say, you read and you embody texts which are, on the one hand, aphorisms of Angelus Silesius and on the other, dialogues. This storytelling role has always been part of you.
I have the feeling that we need poets and poets, storytellers to tell what brings us together and not necessarily what separates us.
Abd Al Malikat franceinfo
As a child, I was raised by women, mainly my mother and my aunts, and they told us stories. And inevitably, in a certain way, I took the fold. So I started to tell stories, to write stories, to tell about my daily life, my rap group in my city, what we were going through, etc. I have the impression that today, it’s is perhaps what we are missing, that is to say that there is a certain ideology like that, where there are people who have a story, a deadly story, but a story all the same. And on the side of life, where is the narrative?
We’re picking you up because you’ve become a link for many generations. Is it important for you?
It is an honor and a responsibility. Me, what interests me is to be a bridge man, a bridge man and to make sure to magnify the dialogue, to magnify the exchange and to seek what we have in common. Isn’t that the role of the artist, after all? That of the poetess, of the poet, of the storyteller, of those who write, in any case of those who understand that words are more than words?
Did it save your reading and literature?
Truly. Reading, literature, culture literally saved me. If it hadn’t been for all that, I wouldn’t be here, in front of you, today. And it’s important to say to yourself that in a certain way, if it worked for someone like me, then it can work for everyone and that’s fabulous.
It’s true that there has been a real journey in everything you’ve done. Do you take the time to look at this journey?
There is always something to build, a journey never ends. It is the story of a life. And you have to be vigilant.
Abd Al Malikat franceinfo
Precisely. In fact, I’m looking ahead. The path traveled is very good, but I want to say: in order not to end up contemplating and loving getting along and seeing each other, it is important to see what is happening now and tomorrow.. To be vigilant is to be the daughters and sons of the moment. So, I know the way, but it’s not over, it continues until the end and still after.