INTERVIEW
Two years after the release of Rêvolution , the group IAM returns with a 10th album, Yasuke , which leaves Friday. For the occasion, Akhenaton, Shurik'n and Kheops were the guests Thursday of Music! , on Europe 1.
The band members are coming back from a series of concerts abroad and do not intend to stop there. With their new album, they are once again focusing on topics that are dear to IAM's identity: politics, racism, injustice, poverty and class struggle.
A freed slave as inspiration
The title of the album, inspired by a historical figure, already says a lot about the lyrics of the rappers. "Yasuke was an African slave who arrived in Japan and managed to rise to the rank of samurai, which was impossible at the base" in the sixteenth century, says Shurik'n. Through this historical figure, the rappers make reference to migrants crossing the Mediterranean, making this album a creation rooted in its time. Its members may have today all the 50's, it is above all the music that leads them today to release a 10th album, after 27 years of existence of the group.
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"What keeps us going, what gives us this desire to continue producing is this passion for hip-hop and rap," commented Kheops. For his part, Akhenaton replies that they are all "aware that by getting up in the morning, we have an incredible chance to do what we do".
Happy to continue the rap and write about the current world, the members of IAM say they do not have eyes in "the rearview mirror of the genre 'the rap was better before' or 'the old time was great' ". For IAM, this state of mind applies as much to politics as to current musical creation. "These retrograde people have to reopen the history books and look at what were the 60s and 70s. On international issues, I do not think they were extremely violent eras," said Akhenaton.
Mainstream vs. rap rap engaged, "a sign of wealth"
Although young rappers stand out from the comments and political punchlines dear to IAM, the group is not opposed to this young generation. "In the beginning, rap is a culture made to distract so it does not bother us that much," argues Akhenaton. "Even if mainstream rap trustees all the attention of the general public, this musical genre like hip-hop generates on the other hand a counterculture, so the speeches and the music can be diametrically opposed but I see this as a sign of wealth. "
This echo of modernity is illustrated by their collaboration, on this album, with the young Caribbean rapper Kalash. "In our peregrinations of festivals in concerts and in particular in the islands, we met each other, and then, we thought that one day it would be necessary to make a piece together, the opportunity appeared on Yasuke ", says Akhenaton.
Looking to the future and youth, IAM is not ready to die. "Today, we made an album composed of sixteen 16 titles, but we still have plenty of them, we'll do more and we'll continue," says Akhenaton. "It's not over, we're going to re-sign for 30 years".
Their tour, dubbed the Rap Warrior Tour , will begin in March. IAM will be in Marseille on March 26 and in Paris at Olympia on April 24.