At the Nuits Carrées d’Antibes, we met Meryl, the Martinique rapper author of the explosive hit “Coca-cola Mentos”

The Victoire de la Musique, in the “stage revelation” category, passed her by a few months ago. At the Flammes, the “urban” counterpart of the Victoires, she also left empty-handed despite three nominations. Two blows to take, but not enough to really destabilize Meryl.

The one who was nicknamed the “tuber for hire”, at the time when she worked in the shadows as an author or researcher of killer melodies for SCH, Soprano, Niska or Shay, is not the type to fall at the first obstacle. At 28 years old, the Martinican assumes her broad ambitions, recently translated in her first album, “Caviar I”. A few hours before going on stage at the Nuits Carrées in Antibes, she spoke to us about this project, but also about the label she founded, Maison Caviar, her Creole identity and her significant meeting with Jocelyne Béroard, eternal voice of the group Kassav’.

Even when we feel like we’ve done a good job, do we have doubts when an album comes out?

We never doubt. (she smiles) I say that because we are professional, because we work with competent people. The hardest part is doing something that really suits you. There, in terms of aesthetics and sound, I’m happy. I want to tell myself that I made the best album of the decade! Even if the next one will undoubtedly be better. I had to make a lot of choices, because I record all the time. I give my best, as long as I can.

You started about ten years ago. Is the passion intact?

Sometimes, it can happen that we lose a little pleasure, because we have also lost our naivety, by dint of understanding in which system we evolve. It must be what we call experience. But I quickly manage to boost myself again. Especially when I work with other very passionate artists.

”Caviar I” ends with ”Siwo”, a song you share with Jocelyne Béroard from the group Kassav’. What do you remember from this meeting?

Pride… She validated what I do, it’s huge. She made this piece with a lot of love and availability. I dream of still being on stage at the same age as her [Jocelyne Béroard a 69 ans, ndlr]. And above all with the same energy. She told me that she didn’t drink, that she was resting… I smoke. But I do a little sport, I try to manage.

We’ve labeled you a rapper, but you take a lot of other directions on this album: R&B, dancehall, pop…

I wanted to break the codes, and I think it’s starting to take hold. The further we go, the more people will get used to different sounds. There, a title like ”Dembow Martinica” is breaking everything, I like to see that [le dembow est à l’origine un rythme dominicain].

You regularly alternate between Creole and French. Is it instinctive?

Yes, I am often asked this question. There are regions or countries where they speak Creole even more instinctively than we do. In Haiti, it is an official language, for example. But it is true that it comes easily. And whether we like it or not, it is the most widely spoken dialect in the Francophonie.

If you hadn’t founded your own label, do you think another structure would have let you slip so much into your songs?

Of course, having your own label offers freedom. I wouldn’t have agreed to be smoothed. I didn’t necessarily want to launch a label so soon, but life made it happen. I told myself that I had to respect my vision of things, after having had two bad experiences.

So far, what are your best live memories?

My Zénith in Paris was very strong. The Francos in Montreal and the Vieilles Charrues too… And when I play in Martinique, it’s something else again, another pressure. In front of me, there’s my mother, my aunts, my uncles…