Interview: Sarahmée held on

Measure the progress Sarahmée has made over the past three years, between the release of the album Russian doll and this fourth entitled Don’t cry my daughter, otherwise mom will crymakes you dizzy. The rapper is today a recognized figure in the Quebec media landscape, appearing on the microphone of ICI Musique, as well as hosting a documentary series (They) on TV5 Monde and the First ADISQ Gala, again on October 31.

“A lot of things happened”, some good and some tragic. “When you’re caught in the flow, you have to hang on,” she adds, alluding to the death of her brother Karim Ouellet, whose memory runs through this new album, the best of his career.

It could very well have opened as she had first imagined, with the song The hard waywhich perfectly sums up what Sarahmée has experienced over the last three years. “Call me kerosene yeah, I’m ready to burn everything / No staging, otherwise I’ll confuse you / Sell neither the fuse nor the bear’s skin / I’m miraculous / The police “call, my life has just turned upside down,” she raps over a rhythm imbued with the dancing afrobeat sound that she already claimed on her previous album.

However, something was missing, says Sarahmée. She reached out to her contacts in Senegal, who put her in touch with the griote Fatoumata Koné. It is his voice that we first hear on Don’t cry my daughter, otherwise mom will cry. A prayer, entitled Everything will end eventually (sunu)opens the album. The griote names Karim there. She names Sarahmée, she names their parents. She sings in Wolof, but we understand everything she means.

“It’s the tradition of griots: if there’s a party, a wedding or a funeral, they’ll sing someone’s praises… or explain a pain or a loss, and that’s what she does. » Her brother Karim disappeared in November 2021. Caught in the current, Sarahmée and her family held on. This album title, “it’s a phrase that my mother often repeated to me”, her mother, Carole Audet, who we hear playing the kora in the finale of Purea tribute to black women, in particular those that Sarahmée crossed paths with while filming the documentary series They.

A pain that remains

“It worried me a lot” to have to come back to the tragic departure of his brother, “because I know that with the release of a new album, there is the promotion that comes with it”. So having to still feel pain that will never quite go away. “Two years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I went through several stages which mean that today I feel more solid” to talk about it.

To rap about it too, but by allusions. Flashes at the turn of a verse. This album does not contain any songs about mourning per se, but Karim’s memory is there almost everywhere, even when Sarahmée doesn’t sing it.

On the soulful track at the end of the album, a collaboration with Dominique Fils-Aimé named Just loveSarahmée dedicates the work to her brother. “I tasted like that: just love. And Dominique, we have crossed paths many times, I love this woman. She has an authenticity that really feels good. This summer I told him, “I think I have a tour for you, it’s called Just love.” She replied: “I already like the title.” » They booked some time in the studio last August, it was completed.

The perfect finale to this album, whose songs tumble like a torrent of rhythms (first afrobeat, then trap), rhymes and various emotions, but with the aim of a musically coherent album.

In the company of Rymz, she does not regret Life before. Further on, she sings of seduction, smirking, with the Montrealer of Congolese origin Ya Cétidon, new local afrobeat ambassador whose career is in full rise. On Sonia BenezraSarahmée makes an imposing figure in the world of rap, the boastful song, and particularly well shot in the text: “Ton flow is flat like a vacation in Ottawa,” she says to a rival she does not name, before continuing with this: “Their careers are not progressing / It’s like putting gas in a Tesla / Return home by metro / I’m giving out prizes at the gala where you’re not there.”

Candid and rebellious

But by digging into the texts, we realize that Sarahmée speaks to us about herself with a candor that we did not know from her previous albums. These last years have made him realize “what I can control and what I cannot control, and that I should worry about what depends on me, instead of worrying about what others can say about me.” “It’s interesting to see how others define us, but on this album, I wanted to define myself, without worrying about what others would like me to be. »

The exercise is particularly striking on the slingshot trap It’s not you, it’s mewhere Sarahmée first portrays herself as an ungrateful spouse before pointing the finger at one of her exes.

“I realized while writing these songs that I had never gone this far in talking about myself and what I’m going through,” says Sarahmée. “I realize that this is the album on which I opened up the most. I wanted to be clear: my objective was to use strong images so that the public understood me. In the same way, it was necessary that the presence [sur l’album] of Karim or my family is also clearly expressed. It’s there, it’s my life, it sure had to be in the album. »

Even if the album contains irresistibly danceable grooves, “I couldn’t release a dapper, joyful album, where it’s the party and everyone has to fun. It was impossible, I had too much to say. »

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