We had to wait four long years before the completion of The Night of Awakening . Indeed, Oxmo Puccino today offers his eighth career album, now available in North America. As a result, the sharply lucid rapper will be visiting Quebec somewhere in 2020, the official dates will be announced shortly.
The Night of Awakening is an enlightened confession in which the artist opens up in a disturbing way. The album highlights an Oxmo Puccino with a keen eye, lived through words and imbued with raw wisdom. Less metaphorical than his two previous albums, his words are deep and clear, against a backdrop of great objectivity. Even if the pieces are overall darker, they leave room for festive upsurges, such as the magnification of everyday life. Over the last three years, in the productivist frenzy of rap, Oxmo has allowed himself the luxury of maturing his project: “After having released albums and concerts for 10 years, it was a matter of refining and taking the necessary time, detached from the turning winds and seductive sirens. » La nuit du awakening is a true rap album with multiple variations, bursting with musical explorations and its figures of speech. His storytelling talent shines through in each of his songs. While contemplation of the world is his playground.
Oxmo Puccino surrounded himself with Eddie Purple , one of his musical partners with whom he has been collaborating since 2010, an artist with multiple influences, the latter is transcended by pure groove. “ For several months, we looked for direction, worked on the repertoire, multiplied the experiments ” Even if the development of the new musical pieces was first articulated in the heart of a Parisian room, the essence really took shape when the acolytes moved to a lodge in the suburbs. “We needed to get away from Paris, from the demands and family issues to only think about music,” explains Oxmo . As for the production, it was handled by the young prodigy: Phazz (Orelsan, Nisak, Koba LaD). “With Phazz, everything happened very naturally. He was on the Orelsan tour with Eddie Purple. He listened to the tracks and gave us perspective on the one hand and also a current vision of my music with a lot of respect and demands.” The trio then stormed Studio Besco for several sessions to shape the identity and sound environment of La nuit du awakening .
Prestigious collaborations imbued with camaraderie define the contours of this new album. This notably includes the presence of Orelsan on the play Ma Life . “ Orelsan has been a friend for 10 years. The time had come to fix this for the future”, as well as that of Gaël Faye , on Parce que la vie , with Brazilian trap accents, then Oxmo invites Caballero & JeanJass on the suave and airy piece Social Club .
This magnificently well-crafted work oscillates between a past that the artist looks at placidly and a promising and sparkling future. Oxmo knows his position and remembers the path traveled. This album is a manifesto for the right to sing and exist, to live and share one's nostalgia and to build a destiny of one's own.
Album tracks:
1. The right to sing
2. Can't
3. Social club (feat. Caballero & JeanJass)
4. The bear's skin
5. The navel
6. My life (feat. Orelsan)
7. Ali baba
8. At your age
9. Epistolary arrow
10. 10,000
11. Too much love
12. The awakening
13. Sensual Horizon
14. Because life (feat. Gaël Faye)
15. I won't come back