Thursday June 13, the Rio Loco festival in Toulouse (June 12 to 16), Odyssea edition, highlighted rap from around the Mediterranean. On the menu the Algerian TIF, the Moroccan ElGrandeToto, but also Rim’K or Soso Maness. Enough to establish dialogues between cultures and generations… And cultivate the pride of new hybrid voices.
“Are there Moroccans here? Are there DZ (Algerians) here?” With all his charisma, the Casablanca rapper and international star, ElGrandeToto, harangues the human tide, white-hot, massed since the beginning of the afternoon on the Filters meadow, in the heart of the pink city, all flags ( Algerians, Moroccans, etc.) outside. A compact, young and flamboyant parterre, which screams its joy, its rage for life and its pride. Shortly after, it was the turn of the Marseillais of the stage, Soso Maness, to address the public: “Is the blood okay? Toulouse, it’s boiling hot, it’s crazy!” Rio Loco, a festival almost 30 years old, usually known for its world music colors, was betting on rap this Thursday, June 13. But, Elvire Delagrange and Vincent Lasserre, the two programmers, jokingly defend themselves: “Rap is world music like any other!” A sort of punchline that they develop: “We must break down these mental barriers which no longer speak to new generations. Between rap, urban music and world sounds, the boundaries now seem artificial.” And the duo rightly cites all these traditional influences, these roots (rhythms, musical modes, languages, etc.) which color the hip-hop expressions of the planet. Proof in music, this evening, at Rio Loco, where rap reveals itself to be polyglot, Algerian, Moroccan, Marseille, marked by chaâbi, trap, etc.
Because, this year, the theme of the festival, so beautifully titled, to unleash imagination and poetry, “Odyssea”, approaches the shores of the Mediterranean, with headliners like Olivia Ruiz, Barbara Pravi in homage to Dalida or Acid Arab again… As Elvire and Vincent explain: “What marked us in this territory remains the liveliness of oral and sung traditions, poetry, language and word games…” Therefore, how can we neglect rap ?
A “duty to invent”
For this evening, the festival resonated with the multiple hip-hop voices of the Mediterranean, and favored diversity, in terms of aesthetics and generations. It is up to the icon of Algerian hip-hop, TIF, to open the ball, with his sensitive, optimistic and committed rap, mixed with chaâbi. In an audience that screams its pleasure, a devotee of the banks of the Garonne, a Toulouse monument, watches the concert with an attentive eye and does not hide his enthusiasm. It is Mouss, ex-Zebda, who will present on Sunday, with his twin Hakim and a host of guests including Les Héritières and Karimouche, the creation “On both sides of the sea”. For him, TIF is one of those little brothers of whom he declares himself so proud: “It’s the next generation of the Zebda spirit: this hybrid and very current sound, with DZ origins. The link between France and the Maghreb remains indestructible, eternal… and constructive! Those who, like us or TIF, find themselves between two cultures, have this duty of creolization, of invention: we must find our way, our voice, in the depths of our multiple identities. To set an example for others. In the way that Rachid Taha, in his time, showed us a possible path…” And on stage, on this Franco-Algerian rap set, it is indeed a vast, collective and generous dialogue that takes place between the rapper and his “guests”: the Algerian Flenn, with a precise and sharp flow, with a melancholic, phlegmatic and gentle universe; the solar, reggae-oriented rap of Djam (Ahmed Djamil Ghouli); or the old-school sound, but still devilishly effective, of the famous “Tonton” Rim’K. With his indestructible hits on derbouka carpets, Tonton du Bled or Partir Loin, the ex-member of Mafia K’1fry and 113 proves that he still has something under the hood… And the young people in the audience, in return, They know their classics and dad’s rap inside out. “Rim’K is the base,” they assure. Throughout his show, TIF is committed, as usual, without fail, to Palestine. A moment of rare intensity, of emotion, with Palestinian flags brandished by his entire crew, present on stage for a finale with raised fists.
The explosions of the “chameleon”
Then, it’s the turn of the “chameleon” ElGrandeToto (see below), the number 1 Moroccan rapper, voice of a generation and man of all records (most streamed artist on Spotify in the Arab world , Gold Record in 2022, etc.), who collaborated with Damso or Hamza, to take over the stage. And it’s the explosion of sound. A massive and powerful wall of sound, with his guttural voice and dangerous hits like Pablo. An unstoppable flow, which mixes dark auto-tune, traditional influences and ego trip in Darija, his native language. And also diverse languages and backgrounds, happily mixed. Then TIF, his friend, reappears. “Morocco and Algeria, we are together like never before!” proclaims ElGrandeToto, hugging him. Could rap succeed where diplomacy has failed? The evening ends with Don Choa from Toulouse, ex-musketeer of the Fonky Family (The bad boys of Marseille!), who is pursuing a solo career, with his words as agile as ever and conscious rap. So when he raps: “ouch, all the fascists go fuck themselves…”, the punchline raises a tidal wave of support on the Filters meadow. And when Soso Maness (Zumba Cafew!), from Marseille, one of the legendary ports of the Mediterranean, closes the evening, the ecstatic crowd of Rio Loco appears, here, like a very real utopia: young people (and less young) proud of their multiple origins and who send back into the ropes, with immense happiness, those who would like to freeze France in a single – and too simplistic – identity.
Rfi Music
