The series “Soprano à la vie, à la mort” rhymes the history of the northern districts of Marseille and that of the singer

We are not going to compare that to the disappointment on the part of some Marseillais to see Zinedine Zidane, born in the city of La Castellane, discussing with Paris Saint-Germain for a coaching position in the capital. But, the singer Soprano, also a native of the northern districts of Marseille, will tread this Saturday June 11 the lawn of the Groupama Stadium, the enclosure of the Olympique Lyonnais, for the first date of his monumental tour “Chasseur d’étoiles tour” .

Not sure that the Marseillais hold it against him. Because Soprano, if he is a pure Marseillais, is an artist who has succeeded in breaking through beyond the borders of his Plan d’Aou district. And succeeding in crossing the invisible border of the northern districts is the dream of all the kids who live between the large housing estates. This is what the documentary series very accurately tells Soprano to life, to deathwhich will be broadcast from June 15 on the Disney+ streaming platform and which we were able to see in preview.

Divided into six episodes, this series co-produced by Breath Film and Only Pro narrates the journey of Saïd M’Roumbaba (alias Soprano), born in Marseille to a family from the Comoros, who managed to transform his passion for rap into a tremendous success thanks to the group Psy 4 de la Rime which he formed with Alonzo, Vincenzo and DJ Sya Styles (deceased in 2015).

The interest of Soprano to life, to death is located in the wealth of testimonials and archive images that retrace the difficulties faced by Soprano and his acolytes to succeed in making a name for themselves. “We started in cubicles to record songs. We started rapping outside in a hurry. And then we did our first concerts in MJCs”testifies Soprano in this very authoritative biography.

“We started in cubicles to record songs”

We also discover in the documentary how the young boy had to go against the wishes of his father and the imam of the Koranic school (where he went to study the Koran in the evening) to make music his profession. We also see the resourcefulness of the inhabitants of the northern districts of Marseille in the face of very difficult living conditions, and above all the beautiful solidarity that cements the Marseille rap scene. There is for example this moving and funny interview where Akhenaton, emblematic member of the group IAM, tells how he one day took Soprano and his band under his wing.

In soundtrack, the greatest hits of Psy 4 de la Rime punctuate the sequences. We hear again with pleasure The sound of bandits, the band’s first track to be aired on the radio. In a reconstructed scene, Soprano explains how his father had told him in the car about his shame at hearing his son claim to be “a bandit”, when he himself had led since his arrival in France a life of discreet immigrant ready for anything. the sacrifices to integrate as well as possible into the French Republic.

But the kids in the northern neighborhoods dream of a life other than their parents. “Coming from there was both a pain and a gift. It didn’t make me hate life, but the desire to get out of it”poetizes Mej, a friend of Soprano.

The author also recounts the success of the artist. Certain sequences leave no doubt about Soprano’s pride in having broken the boundaries of his city, which is both his identity and the place one must manage to leave, at least temporarily, to become someone. ‘a. The large gap between the archive images of the great housing estates of Plan d’Aou and the aerial views of his villa nestled on the very popular Corniche de Marseille illustrate this.

Another episode focuses on the first trips to New York by Soprano and his friends Mej, Djamali and Mateo, the three other architects of his success. Leaving by plane for the States, the kids realize that the world is accessible to them and that they have the right to dream, even if at the time Mej works as a plumber to feed his mother and that Soprano deposits himself his records for sale at the counter of the shops in the northern districts.

If the series sometimes has hagiographic accents, since Soprano himself participated in its development, the success of this Disney + exclusivity is to delve into the roots of the artist who tell a story much larger than the only path to glory. of Soprano, three million albums sold on the counter.

The documentary series Soprano to life, to death is broadcast on the Disney+ platform from June 15, 2022.