From rap…to field rap! Sheep farmer by day and composer of “flow” by night: peasant rapper MaNTis has just published a new track, a few days before the release of his third album. An opus which always highlights the daily life of farmers, a profession marked by crises. Interview.
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“First, I started rapping around fifteen, sixteen years old.” Jean-Benoît Baudens is a sheep breeder in the town of Vigen, in Haute-Vienne. He is from the north. For several years, he has recounted his daily life in his songs. It would take too long to tell the story of how I became a breeder. There was a farm to take over in Vigen (in Haute-Vienne), and I settled there. Then I continued to rap. And since I used to rap more about my daily life, I became a peasant rapper!
At the start of 2025, a new title has just been released and the album should follow soon.
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From rap… to “field rap”: sheep breeder by day and composer of “flow” by night: the peasant rapper MaNTis has just published a new track, a few days before the release of his third new album. An opus which always highlights the daily life of farmers, a profession marked by crises. Interview.
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©Fabrice Bidault – France Télévisions – France 3 Limousin
As always, his musical compositions are inspired by this busy farming life. “The daily life of a breeder today is hard financially. Even in terms of recognition. So obviously, there is a song on the new album that talks about it quite a bit.”
The title is not yet online, but we were able to listen to it: “Alliance pastorale”, a tribute to the peasant world and to the difficulties of the working profession”without reaping the fruit of his labor.” “What a thankless job”, “every day, you have to work, even when your morale is low…”
Guest of ICI 12/13 in Limousin, this Friday January 3, the breeder evokes, of course, the gathering of January 5: “There is a call to block Paris. As it happens, I am in the middle of the birthing period, so I will not be part of the adventure. But yes, the anger of the peasants is completely legitimate. Today, it’s a job where, if you’re not passionate, you give up very quickly.”
Also read: VIDEO. Music. MaNTis, sheep breeder, makes his peasant rap resonate
This third album will be released in early 2025. The farmer still displays the same frankness: “open your mouth, even if it means closing doors”, as expressed in this first title, accessible online, called “Triptik”, always on an irreverent, rude and revolutionary note.
“Crushed by the crisis, we are hanging on.” As always, the farmer composes the texts, but he is helped with the music: “There, on the new album, there are quite a few “instrumentals” from BV Prod. He’s a guy from Bordeaux. There’s an “instrumental” from Ernesto from Limoges and DJ Koch from Limoges. And two OXYD instrumentals.”
Beyond the agricultural crisis, there is another message, that of the rural man who says he is misjudged, misunderstood by certain categories of urban populations. So, in his next upcoming title, “French”where the breeder wants to define himself: “I don’t care if bobos call me a redneck, that won’t stop me from being proud to be left-wing… I’m against globalization, for progress and evolution, that doesn’t stop me to appreciate certain traditions. I don’t see any contradictions, it’s eco-friendly to buy products from your region.”
The peasant rapper, who in the past had described himself as PSG (for Peasant Super Gauchiste), persists and signs: “There are a lot of us who are leftists, who love the country. I am French and leftist.”
To discover the whole album, you will still have to wait. The release schedule is approximate, because the man, a 37-year-old father, breeder and therefore singer, is busy, especially during this period of intense activity on the farm made up of around a hundred animals: “As for the calendar, as I’m at the birthing period, it will depend on when I have time to publish. But I have three clips to broadcast on the networks.”
Ideally, the release on platforms is scheduled for January 21, followed by a concert on January 24 “at the bistro of Saint-Jean-Ligoure”.
And when we ask him if he plans, one day, to abandon agriculture to devote himself to singing, the answer reflects the character: “I don’t make plans for the comet either. They only pass by, the comets. And I think that as long as I enjoy music, I will continue with music. And my real job remains a peasant !”
