A slight lack of naturalness in front of the camera, a slow phrasing, a lingering voice … Aurélien Cotentin did not have the ideal profile to become a French rap star. But more than ten years after his debut, Orelsan released his fourth album, Civilization, Friday November 19, a month after the highly regarded documentary series Never show that to anyone dedicated to him on Prime Video. Something to remind – or to let those who did not know it know yet – that Orelsan now hovers over the peaks of an environment he did not think he could be part of.
How this Norman, “middle class, middle class” (as he says in his title The rain), son of teachers, fed on rock and Julien Clerc, has he managed to make his way to the film set of the next adaptation of Asterix, directed by Guillaume Canet?
Orelsan is still associated with Caen (Calvados), but Aurélien Cotentin was born on August 1, 1982 in Alençon (Orne), like Daniel Balavoine. He even grew up in front of the pavilion where the singer of Aziza lived. A daily setting a thousand miles from the French rap of the early 2000s and its two strongholds, Paris and Marseille. “At that time, French rap was radicalized, it became more and more harsh. And, outside the Paris-Marseille axis, there were fewer highly successful rappers”, explains to franceinfo Raphaël Da Cruz, journalist specializing in rap for the radio Le Mouv ‘and the site l’Abcdrduson.
Orelsan is all the more removed from the codes since he did not fall into the pot when he was little. It was thanks to basketball that he discovered hip-hop, he who listened rather “Nirvana, Iron Maiden, Guns’n’Roses”, he tells Release (subscribers article). Then come Alliance Ethnik, Nas or Warren G … He is catching up and starting to scribble texts. He tells the story of his life, that of a provincial teenager who kills boredom by doing street golf or rollerblading. “At the time, I was like, ‘What can I say that looks like me?'”, summarizes the singer on France Inter.
“He is not necessarily the first to recount his life as an ‘eccentric’ who comes from an average provincial town. But he is the first to recount, with success, his experience as a young white man from the middle class. “, Raphaël Da Cruz analysis. By evoking the large shopping areas “owhere I loved going for a walk, even when we had nothing to buy ” (he raps in his song In my city, we hang out) or by turning in self-mockery “his sentimental and sexual wandering in a more or less violent way, with a form of humor differently appreciated”, adds the journalist, it depicts an almost unexplored urban territory in French rap. “He arrives with a counter-proposal, sung and light refrains, more pop. He was a pioneer of a certain style of rap in France, he paved the way for groups like Columbine or BigFlo and Oli “, summarizes Raphaël Da Cruz.
The truth is that Aurélien Cotentin, who went through a business school before selling water bottles, did “had absolutely no idea what to do with (his) life”, as he concedes to his brother Clément, director of the documentary Never show that to anyone. At the Caen business school, he is not passionate about lessons. He meets Matthieu Le Carpentier, alias Skread, music producer. With Guillaume Tranchant, alias Gringe – with whom he forms the duo of Casseurs Flowters -, and Abdoulaye Doucouré, alias Ablaye, the quartet is quickly formed. But we still have to push the future headliner of the band – a “soft”, as his parents describe it – and to bring order to a sometimes chaotic daily life, like the young man’s apartment.
“Rapper, I was doing it for fun, but I didn’t believe it at all. I thought it was impossible, I didn’t see who was going to listen to a guy from Caen who is not stylish, who has no story to tell. “
Orelsanin the documentary series “Never show that to anyone”
And when Skread manages to place one of his productions on the opening title (Tallac) from the second album (Pantheon) by star rapper Booba, the group thinks success is possible.
At the same time as his work as a night watchman at the Quatrans hotel in Caen, Orelsan writes, raps. But he’s struggling to make a name for himself. “EIn the province, we did not even have access to certain sounds. You had to buy CDs, you had to travel physically to make yourself known. In Caen, there was no rap scene “, he explains to readers of Parisian. He then tries his luck in Paris during an Ünkut Contest, a clash competition organized by Booba.
The rapper from Boulogne was on the jury alongside the top names of the time: Diam’s, RimK du 113, Cut Killer, La Fouine … Orelsan was eliminated in the first round. “Hey, be nice anyway”, launches the host after the passage of Orelsan to answer the whistles of the public. A humiliation he has “had a little trouble digesting”, he admits to Parisian. “Me who thought I was strong and got me rinsed from the start.”
But in the early 2000s, a revolution came to the fore and had a name: Myspace. A social network that allows artists to post their musical compositions. “The recording industry is hit hard by the crisis, observes Raphaël Da Cruz. He comes from a different socio-cultural background, he’s a bit of a geek, he quickly understands that with the internet, there are endless possibilities to make oneself known. “” Myspace has changed everything “, confirms Orelsan in The Parisian.
“He was one of the first ‘internet rappers’ in France.”
Raphaël Da Cruz, journalistto franceinfo
Orelsan posts two headlines that make noise: Valentine’s Day and especially Dirty whore. In the first, he tells with his friend Gringe – and with a humor to be taken to the third degree – his vision of the feast of lovers. The second features a boy who discovers that his girlfriend is cheating on him, writes him an email, under the influence of alcohol, where he insults and threatens her.
Written in 2006, the title resurfaced three years later. Because coached by Skread, who became an influential producer in rap – The Dumpling from Diam’s, it’s him –, Orelsan comes out Lost in advance in 2009. But the controversy related to the title Dirty whore, which is not on the album, takes it all. Feminist associations and politicians are shocked by the text. Questioned on all sets, sued, the rapper defends himself. “I shot a clip where I wear a suit and tie and drink alcohol, to show that it is a fiction. In any case, I am not condoning domestic violence. L he attitude of this character disgusts me, but I have the impression of artistically representing hatred, as a film like Clockwork Orange“, he explains to World in March 2009.
This title and others played on stage in Paris that year earned him, in 2013, a suspended fine of 1,000 euros. In February 2016, he was definitively released during a third trial. “I understand that it could have shocked, like any shock according to the sensitivities of each one “, does he recognize years later in The Parisian. “I have the right to have made this song, it’s pure fiction.” But he no longer sings it on stage during his concerts.
This controversy almost cut off his wings. He gains weight, loses the taste for rap, but bounces back. In 2011, Orelsan returned with a desire for revenge and a second album, Mermaids’ song. With at the center of the game, a character, Raelsan, resulting from an improbable mix between the famous guru and a superhero. The artist transforms under the leadership of director David Tomaszewski. “I don’t mean to be mean, but he was a bit of the little fat guy with a shaved head, who dresses any way. We have to be able to identify him.”, observes the director in the documentary series dedicated to the artist. Hair grows, extra pounds disappear. “The arrival of David Tomaszewski for the second album, especially with the video for Raelsan, has done him good in terms of image”, believes Raphaël Da Cruz.
Orelsan turns his back on controversy and heads for success. Mermaids’ song, with flagship titles like Social suicide Where The earth is round, is certified double platinum disc (200,000 sales), according to the Snep website. He collects two Victoires de la Musique. But rather than ride the wave, he reunites with his old buddy Gringe and resuscitates the duo of Casseurs Flowters. “It could put Gringe in the spotlight, it was good that he could have a career too”, justifies Orelsan in Never show that to anyone. “I thought it was crazy, it was a risky bet”, recognizes the acolyte who had let go of the microphone a few years ago. Then an album is born (Orelsan and Gringe are the Breakers Flowters), then a movie (How far is it), its soundtrack and a series broadcast on Canal + (Blocked). “He is a very loyal person “, summarizes his mother in West France.
With his friend, he even realized one of his desires: to dub a cartoon. “I imagined a voice from the musical world, rather rap, there were points in common between Angelino and what Orel said in his texts. The loser and disillusioned side, but lucid about his environment “, observe for franceinfo Run, the cartoonist of the comic strip Mutafukaz, adapted for cinema in 2017. He met Orelsan in 2009, when his adaptation project was in its infancy. If the project struggles to take shape, Run sees Orelsan’s career soar with fear: “With Raelsan, we moved away from the delirium ‘lose’ between friends which resembled the universe of Mutafukaz. It was more ambitious, I was afraid that a gap would occur over time, between his desires and my project. “ But when Run contacted him again in 2016, “he tells me that he still agrees, he kept his word given in 2009, despite the water running under the bridges”.
“He’s a non-cheating dude, he’s ‘in real life’ as you can imagine he can be, there’s no hidden flaw. He’s genuine.”
Run, designerto franceinfo
This parenthesis closed, Orelsan returns in 2017 solo with The party is over. The disc is certified diamond (500,000 sales) in eight months. The following year, he left for a gigantic tour: 43 zeniths, 27 festivals, 8 venues in North America, 4 Bercy (now AccorHotels Arena) … That is to say more than 850,000 spectators in total, writes The Express. With three Victoires de la musique and a huge impact with its title Basic, picked up and hijacked on multiple occasions (by nurses from Toulouse to defend their working conditions, lawyers from Le Havre to denounce the reform of justice or Manu Payet to promote the Caesars), Orelsan has reached heights that ‘he did not imagine.
“The fact of not having confidence in yourself, that can be a strength too, because that is what makes you go a little further in creation.”
The rough-hewn white teenager is approaching his forties. White hair appeared, but success never left him. He even touches the world of fashion with his brand Avnier. While The smell of gasoline, the first title of his fourth album, has already been talked about since Wednesday, the new Caennais galette is almost guaranteed a first gold record (50,000 sales) with pre-orders. In this disc, he fulfills another of his dreams: to collaborate with the legendary group of American producers The Neptunes, composed of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. A new step before managing to work with Eminem, his fantasy? “He’s not a usurper, he’s a real rap lover, concludes Raphaël Da Cruz. The rappers they met in his early days understood this well, even artists who might be thought to be totally foreign to his music, like Sefyu or Nessbeal. “