Qu'EST-CE QUE JE T'AIME SALETÉ DE RAP #FEUTOUR

It is thursday, first of december, year 2016. I weirdly woke up in an amazing mood (yeah, it rarely happens, so I am going to celebrate the small victories) and walked, determined, to the metro station. 10:15, here I was. About 50 people were already settled, randomly sitting in-between the metal bareers. It was 2 degrees outside (feels more like minus 8000), we all were sitting in front of the AccorHotels Arena and it was D-Day : tonight Nekfeu is turning a packed Bercy upside down. Some of us had been waiting for a year. The artist did set himself up for quite a risky project: gathering 20 000 people in the venue after only having released one single album. But, thanks to a strong fanbase and hard work, the Fennek achieved what many would have thought impossible : "Sold Out" can even be read on the posters outside. From that, one can get the craziness of the moment to come.

Why am I telling you all this? You will understand later.

It is, only after having faced the cold parisian weather for 9 hours (¿¿¿¿¿¿), and seen the sun set on the arena, that I finally entered in. I could not feel my body anymore, I still managed to hurry and reached the place that seemed to have been assigned to my person : the front row. Holy Grail. It was my first time in Bercy, after I had no choice but to sell - heart-broken - my ticket for my all-time idol Paul McCartney a few six months before. The venue was huge and it was the precise moment I seize the importance of the event. Little by little, the empty seats were filled, room was heating up. On the big screens, a link projected promised us a great surprise coming up. And all of sudden, the lights turned off. Dj Elite started mixing behind his turntables. The atmosphere was getting tense. Tension was getting stronger. Floor was rattling.

The moment was getting importanter by the minute (yeah, I know this is not a word, leave me alone) : Nekfeu had announced it, his kho Sneazzy would warm up the venue. Alright. Yes, I was trying to remain calm, but Sneazzy was my crush of the rap game since 1995 (the crew, not the year I would have celebrated my minus one year old) and Dieu Bénisse SuperSound was a genuine gift from the Almighty. So, I was ill-at-ease. There he was. Dressed in black, head-to-toe, and wearing Yeezys. No one on Earth was ready for his flow. Guy had just burnt the place to the ground with an uncompared casualness, a few dance moves and an energy coming from a whole other planet. I was more than convinced, and was pretty sure the 19 999 other people also were.

After a few tracks, including "La Maille" featuring Infinit’, came a speech on tolerance and on the values that are slowly abandoning us, following which the genius Sneazzy started a brilliant track one might wisely title "Fuck Donald Trump". You can see by yourself.

I think we can say it was a turnup : the atmosphere in the venue was hectic. Sneaz clearly did the job. F*ck, he is good. Then, we were nicely given a twenty minute break. We were almost there, no one could believe it. And then, the sort of egg-like thingy that seemed to be made to get down the roof to land on the stage, that many had noticed, was starting to move. Someone was getting inside of the weirdly shaped stuff. The surprise seemed to be turning into the most unsuccessful of attempts and the whole arena provocately started to sing : "on t’a cramé" ("busted").

(After having consulted my expert in mangas, Monsieur Bazin, the "sort of egg-like thingy" was one of the "special capsules from Freezer's army, first grand ennemy of Goku in the Dragon Ball saga. Iconic and mythic bad guy of the manga". I can go on and on as he wrote quite a number of paragraphs about it, since he is really concerned about my knowldege on DBZ. But because, I care about you, I won't.)

This was it : lights went off again and others were pointing the UFO getting down the roof of Bercy... It had been said in the myths and legens of the World that nothing in the sky, on Earth or under water had ever been so anticipated, and yet so slow to finally come... Seriously : I died eight times before the thing landed. And then, here came trouble: that was not Nekfeu, nope, it was actually Ramzy (Bédia, French comedian, loved by so many of us). The unconditionnal fan of the French series H inside of me was deeply moved, but wait, there was more to it. Would be too easy. No, no, it was Ramzy wearing a Sangoku costume. Nice innit.

So Nekfeu, as for himself, calmly barged in from a small flight of stairs on the side of the stage. Ultimate troll. Nekfeu was wearing a luminous Seine Zoo jacket. One of the many outfits he will put off during the concert. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of the latter. Sarry. But I will let you enjoy the many pictures I took during the evening. You will probably recognise many familiar faces (or not, cause as you are now reading the article in English you might not be familiar with French rap, or if you are and are British as well, would you please marry me?) : Nekfeu had managed to reunite the whole family. Sneazzy, Dj Elite, Doums, Alpha Wann, SPri Noir, Mekra, Framal, 2zer Washington, LuXe, Hugz Hefner, Hologram’Lo, and I am probably forgetting some names, oopsie... The whole squad was present, no doubt. At some point, I realized the mess it is, I looked at my surroundings, I could see the flashes of phones as thousands of starts lighting the Fennek's empire, and at that moment, I said to myself : "girl, you are now living the fucking history of French rap".

You might have understood it, from an almost re-united 1995, to the flow of the S-Crew, it was Christmas time. But Nekfeu, as generous as he is, was not to be stopping at that, of cours. Bigger is better, a f*cking bomb had to be dropped on French rap. We were promised something big, here it came.

I was quite not the genius when it happened (or, as I already knew what was coming, I prefered to keep the moment for myself???) and I did not film the countdown that followed. What was happening ? I think you know : "that, that is the cover of my brand new album", Nekfeu proudly confided. And he clearly had the right to as hard work paid off. His album was dropped during the concert and no one was ready to face this divine intervention.

Six letters - 14 tracks - zero promotion
and a f*cking Earthquake

We also had the chance to see the fine team perform for the very first time live one of its new track : "Squa". I am not gonna lie : when the first notes of the fabulous prod made by our beloved Hugz Hefner kicked off, I looked over at my concert neighbour and simply dropped a "olala" and some weird and improbable hand moves. I was lost, I might have been struggling for air, idk, I was already too high from it. To that, I will only add a "that is reaaaaal good" and would me allow myself to be taken away by the sound of music. Nekfeu was coming as LuXe as Yass and, in a matter of a few seconds, he flipped the whole game.

Bonus

Many people to be seen at the venue. While waiting for the artists to come out, we saw, among others, Catherine Deneuve screen partner of Nekfeu in the upcoming Thierry Klifa's movie, Tout nous sépare, but also Adèle Exarchopoulos (she is gorgeous, we actually were moved by her beauty) and for my greatest pleasure: Orelsan and his team. So much love.