DJ Manifest calls himself a night owl, since for twenty years already, it is the night that comes to him his inspiration. Night owl, but not numerologist, although the cover of his new album, Sleepwalker, conceals this formula: 2 h 22, displayed on an electronic dial and on his mobile phone. Apparently, looking at three figures would mean the start of a new cycle, “the opportunity to make a sort of assessment, inventory, of your personal life, explains the musician. It invites us to take a moment to ask ourselves: Are you where you want to be in life? »
The composer, director and faithful on-stage companion of rapper Koriass is exactly where he wanted to be in life, after two decades of digging his furrow in the Quebec musical world. Note also how Manifest and other veteran composers of his caliber – such as Farfadet (who took the microphone to launch a new mini-album a few weeks ago) and Ruffneck (he has just launched the extract On the Boulevarda collaboration with American heavyweight Rick Ross, who will be featured on a new album due out in April) — are still flourishing on the Quebec rap scene, which is beset by new talent.
“It’s cool that the three of us are still active and have found our place,” comments Manifest. “Everyone must be able to find their place, because the goal of all this is for the scene to grow and for the youngest and the oldest to rub shoulders within it, and for the scene to live thanks to to that. I did a lot of radio when I started, I mixed for a long time in clubs, in shows; one of my goals was to introduce this music to those who were less receptive. Show them that rap in Quebec is good, that those who do it are professionals and that our music is diverse, because the beauty of the scene is to be able to show that we don’t all do the same thing. »
1980s fan
Manifest is where it should be, in its place, but Sleepwalker all the same signals the beginning of a new cycle in his career, in a way heralded by his previous instrumental projects 1984 (published in summer 2020) and Midnight Xtasy (April 2022). And this new cycle has a different flavor, inspired by synthetic funk, boogie, R&B of the same 1980s. This new album is packed with irresistible grooves, the perfect album to listen to before going to the nightclub.
“Through my twenty years of music, I have integrated [dans mes productions] several styles, explains DJ Manifest. I dabbled in reggae, jazz, soul. However, this new album reflects the musical direction in which I want to go: festive, but anchored in these soul and R&B styles of the 1980s, it is the music that I like to listen to the most on a daily basis. And I want to attract artists with me, in this direction. »
Past the instrumental intro, the next fourteen songs all feature a different rapper or singer. Several come from the Anglo-Montreal rap scene, such as the hypnotic Troy Dunnit (his album Afterlove appeared in March 2022), the rookie Freddiedot (on the flowing and flashy Never Enuff) or even Meryem Saci (ex-Nomadic Massive) and Shah Frank. The other half of the invited collaborators are established in the United States.
“I hope that this album can serve as a business card for me to insert myself, quietly, into the American music industry, by showing that this is the kind of sound that I want to put forward”, admits DJ Manifest, who works in parallel on the music of several projects of his American collaborators, including that of Anthony Danza, young hope of the Seattle rap scene. “It opened several doors for me and allowed my name to circulate,” rejoices the Montrealer, who is approaching the new year with ambition.