While the heavyweights of North American Anglo rap exchange insults through songs, ours rise up by giving a lesson in brotherhood. Released on streaming platforms at midnight last night, the album Robot portrait unites the forces of two of the scene’s most respected MCs, Souldia and Lost. The Quebecer and the Montrealer tell us the genesis of this project, which took a decade, then a week at the chalet, before coming to fruition.
It’s the most followed soap opera on the American rap scene: Kendrick Lamar against Drake, the latter dealing fewer blows than he took. The verbal joust was revived with the release, on March 26, of Like That, Future’s song composed and produced by Metro Booming on which Lamar refutes rapper J. Cole’s assertion that he, Drake and Lamar form the “Big Three” of global rap. Two weeks later, Drake responded to Lamar with two new songs (Push Ups And Taylor Made), but the latter hit the nail on the head with his insults towards the Torontonian on Euphorialaunched last Tuesday.
This is the summary of this episode, certainly entertaining, but not very edifying, Souldia and Lost agree. “It’s part of rap, beef, since the beginning, recalls Souldia. Afterwards, I always preferred to create buzz by launching a good song, or by creating an event, like a big concert, for example. Because that’s what they do: they seek to attract attention to themselves. »
Spontaneous
Launching a surprise album is a much more constructive way to attract attention to yourself. Especially if said album lives up to expectations: not one song too many among the ten that make up Robot portrait, a work which, Lost reveals, materialized “spontaneously”. “It had been floating around for years, and through talking about it, it ended up happening, at a time when we are also seeing several joint albums from rappers appear,” adds Lost, who has a few releases in mind recent ones on the French rap scene, such as Enemy brothers by Koba LaD and Zola, released last January.
“We went into exile at the beginning of the year in a chalet, which we had rented for a week,” says the member of 5Sang14, who plans to launch a new solo album in the fall. The two rappers brought together their most loyal collaborators, Christophe Martin, Farfadet, Toosik, TWT, who composed and produced the album together. “In five days, we had completed the work. The selection of titles was simple: everything we recorded ended up on the album. »
Guys like Lost and me, we have to get other rappers to imitate us, and not the other way around. Hence songs like “Hier encore”, with the allusion to Aznavour, or “Laisse-moi”, a sort of piano-vocal ballad with a super brutal drop.
The first thing that jumps out at your ears when listening to Robot portrait, these are all of the themes covered: Souldia and Lost are both fathers of families and musicians in demand, atypical workers forced to leave for long periods to earn their living on stage. Both also share the experience of a difficult past and trouble with the law, memories which provide context for their songs (the excellent DCD And Goodfellaznotably).
On a musical level, the collaborators of Lost and Souldia have concocted frankly original rhythms avoiding the commonplaces of drill and trap which flood the contemporary rap scene. “This is exactly what we wanted!” announces Souldia. Guys like Lost and me, we have to get other rappers to imitate us, and not the other way around. Hence songs like Yesterday againwith the allusion to Aznavour, or Leave mea sort of piano-voice ballad with a drop super brutal. »
Paradoxically, if we recognize Lost and Souldia as embodying rap that more crudely describes certain realities that society prefers to hide, this Robot portrait on the contrary turns out to be musically welcoming, because it is rich in melodies. Lost raps with a more flowing prosody (notable on Skyscraper, one of the best on the album), he who has already tried more pop and danceable rhythms. For his part, Souldia dares to push the melody even further, singing in a voice that is surprisingly better assumed than on his last projects. “It’s something I’m working on in the long term,” he says simply.
“These ideas came together naturally,” suggests Lost. Which is cool with this kind of two-person project, we see it as an opportunity to try new things. » Lost and Souldia will launch Robot portrait at the Impérial de Québec on May 31, then at Club Soda on June 8.