December belongs to Quebec rappers: it’s Christmas before its time for amateurs, who are gorging themselves with the return on record of Manu Militari, the tenth album of the inexhaustible Souldia and finally of Snakeyez, debut album by 5Sang14. The Montreal rap collective has raised the stakes and expectations in recent years before signing with the label Joy Ride Records (Loud, Imposs, Conn Thick Ticaso) and offering this record on which the MCs deepen the themes that are dear to them, such as the risky life of certain neighborhoods, the incessant quest for success and disappointing love affairs.
“Do you know a bit about the rules of the dice game?” asks rapper White-B. When you roll a double 1, it’s called a snake eyes », The title of the first album of 5Sang14. “The game is then automatically over, and you pocket all the money.” It is a metaphor to say: the 5Blood14 has arrived, the game is over. ” Snakeyez also appears after a good year for the members of the group, which we heard collaborate with the most prominent colleagues on the scene.
Two members of 5Sang14 also took advantage of the confinement to simmer their solo projects: Lost launched the album Lostalgik (2LUXE) last summer, and White-B the EP Double Vision in the spring, two projects that made a splash on digital platforms. However, the group is greater than the sum of its parts, because it is the complementarity of these five distinct voices that seals the deal: “Each in the group has its strength, some are more melodious, others more focused. on the raps and the verses, and this is what makes the strength of the project, all contribute to it by putting their touch “, comments Captain Gaza.
Random praises the diversity of the musical atmospheres of the album, made up of fourteen songs taken from a reserve of forty recorded for this project, the most recent, Sport Mode, Counterfeiting and Fuck that, having been conceived in a chalet last summer in the company of composers Ruffsound, TWTbeats and Kable Beatz – several other composers, including Fabio, YNG Milly, BirdzOnTheTrack and Hoti8.
“By sorting through the rhythms, we discarded those that looked too similar. It gives different vibes and shows that we are capable of touching several styles ”, of the lascivious and vaguely Latin groove of Dangerous bomb with afrobeats reflections Hot there, through more dismal productions partly inspired by the drill trend, such as Stay straight, Comfortable Where Fault, which opens the album in a particularly lucid tone: “I see no justice, no, I just see men locked up by men / Who are they? Tell me, who are they to judge who we are? / I’m still gang, but I make fewer mistakes since I became a father / I had time, it’s funny to say because all I did was lose some ”, raps Lost, his hand on his heart.
” The street “
Thus, the collective imposes its authority on the rap scene with this album, a concentrate of what has made the success of 5Sang14 since its debut in the underground six or seven years ago: a flair for sung choruses that remain in head and a musicality coming to soften the raw texts drawn from this inexhaustible source of inspiration that is “the street”.
“The main theme will always be the street,” confirms White-B. Its temptations, its perils, its conflicts, described in crude language, recognizes Lost. “It’s very violent. It’s desired. You have to know that we have this way of speaking – but a word like “bitch”, you don’t necessarily have to think that it only concerns a woman. It is also used to talk about men ”.
There is no ambiguity with the words, however, when it comes to drugs, crime and guns polluting neighborhoods. The 5Sang14 often expresses itself on these themes, but we never have the feeling that their texts aim to glorify the weapons or the crimes committed with them. This suggestion even makes White-B bristle: “It is certainly not listening to music that will make me a murderer!” I have a head on my shoulders, people too. So when these topics come up in our songs, whether it’s fiction or not, it shouldn’t worry people. You have to stop saying that rap causes violence, it’s not true. “
Random adds: “Our music videos are not reports. And Al Pacino, the actor who plays Tony Montana [dans Scarface, du réalisateur Oliver Stone, 1983], he will not be accused of promoting drugs or murder. Neither will Netflix be criticized for presenting the series Narcos. It’s still fiction. “
And your texts are they? “We do rap that addresses certain Montreal realities, but we must not take everything at face value,” the rapper simply replies.
But the revelation of Snakeyez, it’s the number of songs that don’t talk about the street, and rather love tribulations – these guys, casually, are very sentimental! The remark elicits a few laughs on the phone. “I’m kinda okay with that,” Lost said. Basically, you’re right, we’re all good guys. We are professionals, we pay our taxes, we vote on election day. Shouldn’t take us for something else. “