Six years after setting foot on the rap scene, Marie-Gold feels she has found her place. “The important thing was to do it my way,” she says. I understood that it was not because I was a woman that I had to occupy the place of a woman who does rap. I occupy the place of the “Baveuse”. Simply Marie-Gold’s place. She wishes you Welcome to Baveuse Citythe imaginary city of the title of her second album where the musician lays down her law, humorously addressing romantic relationships, patriarchy, personal emancipation… and the electrification of transport.
Between the solemn welcome in opening and introspectives Your Honor and See you soonwhich conclude the album on a bittersweet note, the mayor of Baveuse City hands out dance floor bombs — bangers “, as the Baveusois and Baveusoises say – with impressive consistency. On his previous album Golden Rule, published in March 2020, Marie-Gold had already gained confidence and experience since her debut with the female collective Bad Nylon (2015). On this new album, the leap forward made by the rapper is simply amazing.
“My first years in rap were stormy,” she admits. The music industry is rock’n’roll, so it’s important to have fun doing this job and, I understand, to take yourself less seriously. […] I also feel really better and confident, surrounded by a good team, I think that shows through in the album, [qui est] more consistent. “An album of 17 songs without weaknesses that strike and make you smile, the rapper using a lot of humor to get her messages across.
Like on beach club, take. “In my mind, it was that I wanted a dubstep song that was going to be called beach club and talk about the environment! » After the release of his first album, the idea of a mix tape around the idea of the “Baveuse” began to germinate. The pandemic gave her the time and the means to turn the project into a concept album, “in the sense that I didn’t just pick up songs and give the whole thing a title,” she explains. Each song represents a place or law that exists in Baveuse City. And in there, I found my subject: a playful rap in the first degree, but with a reflection in the second degree”.
Formerly a composer, she has completely delegated the musical production to colleagues (mainly the guys from the Parisian collective Novengitum, with whom she was already collaborating on the previous album) to better focus on the writing and interpretation of her texts, while keeping control of the execution. “I found a color specific to my project”, by daring to use humor, sometimes even absurd, as do in France the rappers Lorenzo and, above all, Vald “inspirations for this album, particularly Vald, he is really crazy , him!, believes Marie-Gold. Few rappers in Quebec exploit this vein, I find. I want to open the niche of the colorful, fun and uninhibited rapper. »
And it was in Baveuse City that Marie-Gold found the inspiration to tackle a variety of themes in this tone, more mocking than sardonic. Independence in love on Museum wow. The ” haters ” on No dads — a collaboration with Chloé KDL, the self-proclaimed “Cardi B of Quebec”, which promises to get people talking. The immaturity of the guys on At daycare, a piece “really silly – I rap words almost more immature even than the juvenile talk that I condemn”. The need to pick up social networks on Disconnected. The gaze of men on Rollercoasterand those she hangs out with in the rap industry in house of dicks. The electric car in Kesta? !a duet with English-Montreal rapper C’nee Starlette.
Between rap and engineering
To embody this role of imaginary mayor, she was inspired as much by Valérie Plante’s victory in the last municipal elections as by The Republic of Plato — and, for the touch of absurdity of the project, of Myth of Sisyphus by Camus. She was even able to count on an unexpected ally: Catherine Fournier, Mayor of Longueuil. “I contacted her, she showed me around her town last summer, when she was still a member of parliament, simply to help inspire me,” says Marie-Gold.
If the environment seems to be a priority on the agenda of the mayoress of Baveuse City, it is also because Marie-Gold has made it a career plan: between two concerts and recording sessions, the author -composer-performer uses the benches of the Polytechnique classrooms, where she is completing her training in engineering physics with a specialization in energy engineering. The recording of this album ended on December 22, the same day she took her last exam of the session; she will receive her engineer ring later in the spring.
“Science has always fascinated me,” explains the musician. When I finished my cégep in communications, I found that I was very much in the container [plutôt que le contenu] and I had a little existential crisis. The sciences brought me answers: I first tried biology, ecology, then I discovered physics. Science also nurtures me creatively, giving me a break from the music industry. And then, I have the feeling that in the future I will be able to do something for the environmental cause, which is really close to my heart. »
And in these two mediums, rap and engineering, traditionally masculine, Marie-Gold enjoys kicking the clichés. “Who has the most boys’ clubs ? “Rap,” she replies without hesitation. “It may be due to the fact that in physical engineering, there are large companies, research centers, institutions, whereas the rap world revolves around clans, teams of collaborators who form more organically. Anyway, the boys’ club is more often mentioned in rap than in genius physics! »
On the other hand, “what seems positive to me in the hip-hop movement, continues Marie-Gold, is that in comparison with the context of ten years ago, more and more female rappers are taking their place. And what’s great is the diversity they bring [à la scène] : see Calamine doing her thing, Sarahmée doing her thing, Naya Ali doing her thing, and now me with Baveuse City, it’s cool. It shows that we all have our different personalities and colors. We’re not just women rapping anymore. »