four good reasons to see the documentary “Never Show This To Anyone” on Amazon Prime Video

OrelSan believed himself “lost in advance“(title of his first album) and he became a star of French rap. His little brother Clément, he always believed in it and he has not lost a crumb of his rise, sticking to his brother’s basques with his camera. Co-produced with Christophe Offenstein (Les Petits Mouchoirs, How far is it), series Never show that to anyone, divided into six episodes of 30 minutes each, looks back on the journey of the Norman rapper since his beginnings “through an intimate immersion“. Testimonies from his peers Akhenaton, Soprano, Oxmo Puccino, Stromae or GIMS complete this dive behind the scenes of an ascent. Here are four good reasons to see her.

1For intimate, cheerful images

“Rapper, I was doing it for fun but I didn’t believe it at all“, OrelSan remembers in the documentary. From the start, his little brother Clément, on the other hand, believed in it a lot. He began to film his brother. He is there everywhere, all the time. With some videos of relatives and archives family, his images constitute the film’s raw material, and the most pleasing to discover.

Because Orelsan trusts his brother, he forgets the camera and gives himself up as well as those around him. In the action as in the downtime, in the room then the apartment in brothel where the friends squat “H 24”, in the tour truck, in the jump of the bed badly awake, in the studio, on the radio, in the behind the scenes of concerts, in the joke as in the moments of doubts, Clément is always there. We witness all the metamorphoses and all the trial and error of Aurélien Cotentin and we smile regularly. Because Orel is far from always to his advantage.

When he holds the reception of a night hotel in Caen, in a gray suit, wide old-fashioned tie and short hair, we don’t give much of his future as a rapper. In his family, however benevolent, he is taken for a “soft“. During his first clash at the Battle Unkut organized by Booba with a jury of stars (Diam’s, Omar Sy, Cut Killer, Rim’K…), he was released in three punchlines in the first round. depressed with 15 kg too much at the time of an air gap in his career. In the end, these images will make some people want to persevere. They prove that even if we have neither the look nor the codes, it is necessary to continue until imposing its singularity.

2Because this doc is also a hymn to friendship

Orelsan did not arrive alone. As often, it’s a team affair. In this, this documentary is also a hymn to friendship, to that of a bunch of friends who stick together. It allows us to get to know people in the shadows more closely. Starting with the sound director Skread who is decisive in the adventure.

Well-made head met by Orel in business school, Skread is not a teaser but “a watchmaker, a Cartesian“, a sure and square guy, always of good advice. He succeeds the first to break through. He places a prod on an album of Booba, then several on the album of Diam’s In my bubble (2006), including that of the mega hit The dumpling. He could now chart his course alone.

Except that in this musical fraternity, we never let go of our friends and we cut corners at every step. It is therefore first Skread who reaches out to OrelSan. To release his music, he set up the 7 Magnitude label, published by Warner, with Ablaye, the faithful “backer“jovial who worked so that Orelsan is respected in the cities. Later, it is OrelSan who will retain Gringe by the hood of his sweatshirt to form with him the duo Casseurs Flowteurs with the success that we know.

3To follow an ascent from behind the scenes

How do you realize your dream? This is the question Clément wants to answer with this documentary. It therefore places us in the front row, at the heart of the reactor. On this subject, for those who are not fans or know little Orelsan, these three hours (or at least the first two) are worth seeing. How do you break through the impassable lines of the capital’s music industry when you come from the provinces and have neither the codes nor the contacts? How to impose oneself, how to make desirable a schoolboy rap and disconnector when it is time for hardcore rap?

It’s no secret: you have to work, be creative and persevere. Lazy as he may seem, OrelSan never stops. On Skread’s advice, he first sets up a Myspace in the form of a diary. For two years, he put a lot of energy and self-derision into it, shot small teasers and drafts of clips to retain the first fans and attract others. When the majors began to court him, he preferred to sign on an independent label which had just been born, 3e Bureau.

After attracting attention with Change, the title Jimmy punchline opens the first doors to him. Six concerts are scheduled at the Boule Noire in Paris with the idea of ​​convincing theater directors to put it on display. At the first concert, he forgets to turn on his microphone and panics. He is clumsy, he learns on the job. The first album Lost in advance finally released on February 16, 2009. About sixty concerts, including Printemps de Bourges and Francofolies, are scheduled. The sauce takes, many young people identify with his texts both funny and disenchanted, Orel has his foot on the accelerator, the dream becomes reality.

4To see an artist rise after being given for dead

Come ? This is without taking into account the cruel law of success according to which everything hangs by a thread. For a misstep, the spotlight can suddenly turn off and send the suitor back to nothing. This is what Orelsan has suffered on the rise with the huge controversy surrounding his title Dirty whore with a violent and provocative text, which does not appear on his album. On the side of the accused, we are witnessing the media frenzy which is based on a misunderstanding: that of the fictional dimension denied to rap and yet never questioned in the cinema. (After several years of legal twists and turns in this case, the rapper was finally released by the Versailles Court of Appeal in February 2016).

Everything then collapses like a house of cards, the concert dates are canceled one after the other and the album is doomed. “I think I got depressed “, he admits today. He puts on weight and thinks about dropping the case, then finally decides to try his luck again. Condemned to make a great album for this perilous return, he calls on the director David Tomaszewski who will completely reshape his image and make him reborn as a vengeful and masked superhero, Raelsan. David convinces him to diet, build muscle, and change his hairstyle. The mutation, which is taking place before our eyes, is striking.

It will be a rebirth. Skyrock has love at first sight Social Suicide, The earth is round became a hit and Orelsan won two Victoires de la musique 2013 in the wake. He has come a long way but “from there everything was well pinned“. Since then, solo but also with Gringe at Casseur Flowteurs and with the series Blocked, OrelSan has established itself as a heavyweight in French rap. Morality: “There’s no shortcut to the firmament“. He has “took ten years to break through “ and now knows that “every word can be the last“.

The documentary series in six episodes “Never show that to anyone” by Clément Cotentin and Christophe Offenstein has been available since Friday, October 15, 2021 on Amazon Prime Video