A year ago, in the midst of yet another controversy launched by the far right, this time concerning his anthem written for the Blues at the Euro football championship, rapper Youssoupha released his sixth studio album, Neptune Terminus. On Friday, April 8, he adds another section, called Origins, thought of as a foreword. The 42-year-old rapper talks about it, sometimes with a very African sound, to the rhythms of amapiano, a hybrid of jazz, house and hip-hop, a genre from South Africa that is sweeping the world. . And as always with Youssoupha, the music feeds a strong, universal and anti-racist message.
Franceinfo: What is the difference between this version of the album and the one released a year ago?
Youssoupha: After describing everything around me, I describe myself a little more about this version. Maybe subconsciously it’s the frustration of not being on tour. When I do this new version of my album, usually, in my biological clock, I’m supposed to be on stage. The scene felt perhaps in the studio, it’s true that it sounds good for live.
We have a bit of the feeling that at the moment, musically, Africa is at the center of everything that is being done.
Yes, and it even sounds like the music of the future. Before, indeed, there was this slightly exotic side. The somewhat gadget, accessory, entertaining, but ephemeral side. There, we realize that these are real cultures, with graphic universes, with a way of communicating with imagery, with sounds, words, speeches, and it’s forbidden. And above all, there is an industrial approach, too, which is beginning to be new.
“In some ways, even the complex is starting to reverse itself. You see more and more people in the western world starting to take inspiration from the trends born on the African continent. That’s kind of a good thing. For once that Africa is winning, we are very happy.”
I have identities that add up and complement each other. It’s not because I’m Zairian and proud of it that there isn’t a part of me that’s French and proud of it with the load of strong identities that there is inside. It’s my identities, I have to live with that.
Precisely, it could not come out at a better time, this album…
It’s a coincidence because from a marketing point of view, I didn’t choose it like that. But it turns out that the rise and even worse the trivialization of the discourse, of far-right ideas in the debate is more worrying. Now, I almost have the impression that it is established that we will have to deal with it. Suddenly, this generates a leveling by the “very right” which worries me. Because beyond the fact that these are unhealthy ideas, they obscure other ideas.
“When I see, for example, that the great replacement is being talked about in a very widespread way within the framework of the same campaign, where are we actually looking?”
We’re still talking about hazy theories, which just make noise, and that worries me. I dare to believe that people look at it as a big joke because indeed, in 2009, I already had lawsuits with a future presidential candidate [attaqué par Eric Zemmour, Youssoupha a gagné en appel en 2012], but because I, at the time, I denounced the big joke that it was. Even if the biggest joke went very far. I hope it will stop soon. The people of this country simply deserve better.