He bridged the gap between rap and electro, two genres that were previously polar opposites: DJ Mehdi, who died in 2011 at the age of 34, is the subject of a six-part documentary series broadcast this Thursday, September 12 on arte.tv.
DJ Mehdi: Made in France traces the journey of Mehdi Faveris-Essadi, a turntable prodigy whose career – which began when he was only 13 years old – led him on the path of all the great rappers of the 1990s and 2000s.
“He revolutionized hip-hop, because he managed to bring it into electro but without disguising himself,” Stomy Bugsy told BFMTV, during the Paris premiere on Wednesday evening. “He was 20 years ahead of his time.”
“He opened for my first Paris concert,” he adds. “It was 1990, he was 14. A genius on the decks. He’s really someone important in hip-hop.”
“A great composer”
Born in Asnières-sur-Seine on January 20, 1977, DJ Mehdi discovered music in his early teens. He tinkered with his own turntables and invented his first mixes. Manu Key, a founding member of Mafia K’1 Fry, was one of his first collaborators: “He called me and said: ‘I’m 13, I’m a composer and DJ and I’d like to meet the group Ideal J’. I gave him an appointment; at first, we didn’t believe it. We went to his place and discovered that he was a great composer.”
21 years later, DJ Mehdi died accidentally when a glass roof collapsed on September 14, 2011. “This documentary is here to keep his memory alive, to show how exceptional he was,” summarizes Manu Key. “He was a unique man, a genius.”
“A hyphen”
“Mehdi had a magnetic side,” adds DJ Pedro Winter. “It was his talent, his desire, his passion to be a link, to go and find things where we didn’t expect him. This documentary is a celebration of that, of his contribution to French rap and electronic music. This legacy is precious. We were lucky to meet someone exceptional.”
Directed by Thibaut de Longeville, close to the late artist, DJ Mehdi: Made in France features big names in rap at the time, from Kery James to MC Solaar and 113. The program won the award for best documentary series at the Canneseries 2024 festival.
- BFMTV.com
Related News :