{"id":42441,"date":"2018-03-22T14:05:19","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T13:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/rapper-baloji-is-back-with-a-tortured-but-devilishly-creative-album\/"},"modified":"2020-05-04T23:25:12","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T22:25:12","slug":"rapper-baloji-is-back-with-a-tortured-but-devilishly-creative-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/rapper-baloji-is-back-with-a-tortured-but-devilishly-creative-album\/","title":{"rendered":"Rapper Baloji is Back with a Tortured, but Devilishly Creative Album"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Venture down 137 Avenue Kaniama<\/em> and you will not come out unscathed. The album title is a nod to the street in Lubumbashi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the Belgian rapper was born just about forty years ago. It is a resolutely hip hop album, in its production as well as in its poetic and political musings, and is coming out as one of spring\u2019s top releases.<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n

As questioned in “La derni\u00e8re pluie-Inconnue \u00e0 cette adresse,” (The Last Rain – Unknown at This Address), is the fantastical music of Baloji “too black for the whites and too white for the blacks”? \u00a0Regardless, it is definitely hip hop; the mixing of genres makes this evident. From a slow boil to a furious bubbling of sound, Baloji arranges the album with impressive authority. The strings of James Underwood’s violin (Vampire Weekend, The XX) accompany the rumba (“Bipolaire-Les Noirs”), Trap brushes up against Bikutsi (“Ensemble (Wesh)”), and electronic music and Afrobeat alike are called upon to complete the talented artist\u2019s musical flow. <\/span><\/p>\n

Baloji, who writes his own songs, is above all a poet. He is also a rapper, an amateur sampler, and a talented storyteller. Moreover, he designed <\/span>137 Kaniama Avenue<\/span><\/i> as one long take. His 14 tracks, partly autobiographical \u2014 or to put it otherwise, his 14 cathartic tracks \u2014 are riddled with fake film dialogue as well as real cinematographic references, from Jean-Luc Godard to Michel Gondry.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising, since Baloji is also videographer. For the release of his first album, <\/span>Hotel Impala<\/span><\/i><\/a>, 10 years ago, he made all of his own music videos: “[I did it] rather out of necessity, at first, because there was no one to do them\u2026 and then I got caught up in the game. For me, aesthetics is a way to make the subject believable. The image is at the service of the song.”<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

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Baloji has just made his first short film, <\/span>KANIAMA SHOW,<\/span><\/i> to accompany the release of his new album. He hopes to be able to show it in Congo:<\/span><\/p>\n

“It is a satire of television propaganda in the Congo and more broadly soft power. In our societies, we continue to think that if it’s said on TV, it’s true\u2026 I’ve studied a lot of TV shows and the set I created for the film is a mix of Michel Drucker\u2019s, of Rai Uno\u2019s Sunday afternoon set and of Soul Train.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The “Soleil de Volt” (Electric Sun) video is an extract from this 30-minute film. Eriq Ebouaney, who previously played Lumumba in Raoul Peck\u2019s film of the same name, \u00a0plays the TV presenter. <\/span>Serge Aim\u00e9 Coulibaly<\/span> choreographed the video.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Soleil de Volt” reprises, in its own way, “<\/span><\/span>Dooyo<\/span><\/a><\/span>,” a song by the Dur Dur Band, a Somali group from the 80s. Baloji states that behind the “groove as<\/span>sassin” sound hides the reality of the Lubumbashi inhabitants “living in provincial towns with alternating current and palliative care.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Le monde est \u00e0 port\u00e9e de souris
\nThe world is a mouse click away
\n<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span>Mais y a pas de jus
\nBut there is no juice
\n<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span>Tous surveill\u00e9s par des cookies
\nAll monitored by cookies
\n<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span>Mais y a pas de jus\u2026
\nBut there is no juice…
\n<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span>Big browser, big data
\nBig browser, big data<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\nC\u2019est l\u2019alpha\u00a0<\/strong>et<\/strong>\u00a0l\u2019omerta
\nIt’s alpha and omerta
\n<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span>Le pr\u00e9sident a ferm\u00e9 le robinet
\nThe president has shut the tap
\n<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span>L\u2019acc\u00e8s \u00e0 la 3G
\nAccess to 3G
\n<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span>D\u00e9lestage prolong\u00e9\u2026
\nExtended downloading…
\n<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span>la nuit est rallong\u00e9e”
\nthe night is extended<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
(<\/strong><\/span>Soleil de Volt<\/strong><\/span>)<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

This \u00a0“Overseas Congolese” as he likes to define himself, especially on \u201c<\/span><\/span>Hiver Indien<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/span>” (“Indian Winter”), which is by the way the soundtrack of the video game FIFA 18,<\/span> continues to take a critical look at the country\u2019s affairs and even, more widely, at the current state of the African continent. The masterful final title “Tanganyika,” is a testament to his critical positioning.<\/span><\/p>\n