It doesn’t come too soon, that one. We’ve been hearing for years about a possible first solo album by 20some, illustrious member of the Dead Obies. And here it is: Home Run, an affair that smells of club rap from the 2000s, all coated with pop refrains and reinforced by introspective texts signed by this new dad who wants to make his mark in time, space and between our two ears. “What do I wish for myself before the end?” One thing is certain, I want to leave, leaving something that belongs to me, ”he recalls in the first minutes of the album.
“I am a bit like a turtle in life”, illustrates 20some, whose prosody, methodical but melodious, always found a way to stand out on the albums of the group he co-founded ten years ago with the composer VNCE and rappers Yes McCan, OG Bear, Joe Rocca and Snail Kid (Greg Beaudin), the latter two posing some rhymes on the song Knockout.
And like the turtle, “I move slowly, protecting myself and trying not to misstep,” he explains. I don’t stick to something without thinking about it a long time in advance. However, with this pandemic which coincided with my new family life, it is as if everything had been put in place so that I had time to do it, this album. [Se lancer en solo] was never something that gnawed at me, even though it has always been there, in my mind; it just happened at the right time. “
Standardization of speech
At the moment, too, when Dead Obies gives himself an extended break to which the musician alludes from Perspective at the opening of the album, as if to quickly evacuate the question that fans are asking themselves about the fate of the group: “I’m back, hello!” 20 motherfuck-something, Hi! / My crew, Dead O, fed up by the game, I’m not gonna lie ”, he raps in this linguistic mixture which makes purists roll up the ears – note that the album is delivered more in“ bilingual ” than in “franglais”, the complete sentences in English slipping between two in French.
So, bored of rap-game (“fed up by the game”), the guys from the Dead Obies? 20some feels the need to qualify: “We are not tired of rap, but of what we notice in rap. I admit that the music I hear today is not to our liking – that said, that’s the attitude we’ve had from the start with Dead Obies, which is to say music that we did not hear on the stage. This punk approach, a little “Fuck the world, we’ll do what we want ”, motivated us from the start. However, the more we progressed, the more we accepted to play the game, and I don’t think that did us well. »The break was necessary after the release of the album DEAD., in 2019.
More clearly, 20some deplores a certain lack of depth in the themes and texts of contemporary rap. A “standardization” of the speech, he feels: “I have the impression that there is a lot of filling in rap. Rappers who repeat the five or six things people expect from them… and it works. It discourages me to see that the public falls for such easy stuff, while the richer proposals go unhealthy, and that annoys me. And I decided that on this album, I would ignore all that, the trends. “
Supported by the composer Ajust, the architect of the sound of Loud, 20some bet on sounds “which draw in my past, but with a production up to date”, with a strong inclination for the rap which made dance in the years. 2000, that of Timbaland and Pharrell Williams / The Neptunes. However, the admirer of J Dilla began the creation of the disc by jamming in the studio with the musicians of the jazz-funk-rap collective Kalmunity, imagining a first album based on sampled grooves, “like the music that made tripping, subtle rap, not flashy ”.
The look on life
“Ajust told me: Look, we’re trying to make a clean record, but with a soul different from what we hear everywhere”, a record that benefited from the contribution of sound engineer and composer Tim Buron and composers and arrangers Ruffsound, Realmind, Félix Petit, Mathieu Sénéchal and Pierre-Luc Rioux (Chiild). Without forgetting the inimitable voice of Jacques Doucet, announcer of the Montreal Expos matches from 1972 to 2004, who appears a few times on Home Run. We can imagine the trip of a little guy, 20some child baseball player, inviting the legend of Quebec baseball on his album.
“I’ve been trying to explain the album to myself for a long time,” abounds the rapper. I remember that the most revealing thing that I have been told in my artistic life is: the universal is only achievable by what is personal to us. For example: if you try to write the ultimate love song, you will never make it. But if you talk in detail about your last heartbreak and how she left with your dog, then everyone will understand you. You have to trust your outlook on life. “
” That’s it, Home Run : starting from who I am, ignoring current musical trends. Of course, it sounds like it was done in 2021, but with my references, my memories, my passions like baseball, my first musical loves ”, hidden in the album cover, like a page books Where is Charlie ?“This album is like my imprint on this Earth, more than a projection of who I will be in the future. If I only had to leave a trace of myself, it was Home Run. “