"Death threats for a rap text, it is disproportionate" analysis Medina

Médine releases its new album -

• Médine is releasing a new very personal album, "Grand Médine", this Friday.

• The rapper from Le Havre is also revealed in the documentary “Médine Normandie”, available since Wednesday on France.tv Slash.

• The artist confided in "20 Minutes" on fatherhood, childhood and his fear of time that flies.

Almost two years ago, we met Medina in a particular context.

He was then on the eve of his big concert at the Zénith in Paris, an event all the more important as he had been forced to cancel a few months before dates at the Bataclan, after a heated controversy fueled in particular by personalities from far right.

Two years later, the context is very different, but no less special.

It is in full reconfinement that the rapper is making his return, with a double topicality.

This Friday, he released his new album

, a musical project that is more personal.

He also indulges in an intimate documentary on France.tv Slash available since Wednesday,

.

On this occasion Medina confided with an open heart (and by telephone), on his relationship to fatherhood, to childhood, and to the fear of passing time.

We discover you from a more personal angle through this album and this documentary, why this desire to open up more?

I have the impression that it is with age, experience, the best lessons in life are found in the intimate.

When you mature, even if this word doesn't suit me at all, I have the impression that we reveal ourselves more and we know a little more about men in general.

It is in the little anecdotes that the great story is made speak.

In the documentary, we discover how the Bataclan controversy may have affected you personally.

In the documentary there is a kind of sadness that shines through, or rather how the controversy had an impact on those around me.

Afterwards, personally, I believe that there is a sarcastic dimension which does not show through, with which I manage to overcome the tests, where I realize that it is quite burlesque and crazy what happened to me.

I turned that into a lot of positive things, and especially into music, which is more melodious, more personal.

It's a kind of obstacle that stood in front of me and allowed me to discover other facets of my personality on a human level, but also artistically.

When you walk with a ball on your feet, it develops the calf a little!

To explain the burlesque side, you draw a parallel with the series "South Park" ...

When I get out of the emotion and look at what happened to me, we realize that the death threats for a rap text are still disproportionate.

As well as the bans on playing Bataclan and the extreme right-wing people who mobilized to prevent this concert from taking place, I really feel like I'm in a

season

!

Your family, and in particular your children, appear in these two projects.

Is fatherhood something that has changed the way you look at life a lot?

More than fatherhood, it is my relationship to childhood, and the fact that I am lucky to have children today, which is not the case for everyone.

Above all, I have a great chance to experience a second childhood through that of my children.

Obviously the relationship to life changes when you become a little child again.

You simplify what you think are great things in your adult life.

It challenges you on things that are sometimes too intellectualized, conceptualized, I'm talking about culture, religion, philosophy ...

In 2019, we talked about the movie “Hook” on Peter Pan, one of your references, and you told me: “I don't want to grow up actually, I want to be with Rufio , Peter and the lost children, and fight the adults ”.

Can you remain a lost child when you have children yourself?

I feel like I am La Flûte [one of the characters in the film] today!

The one who finds his marbles at the end.

I have this feeling of having been propelled into the adult world out of obligation.

I may have been a little earlier than the others because I had to answer questions on the public level.

Obviously, when you are a public figure, you have to put your ideas a little faster, organize them a little better because you have a responsibility.

This propulsion into the world of adults does not suit me at all, suddenly I wait patiently to be able to find my bag of marbles, my "pleasant thought" in order to be able to return the lost children with my friends.

Your children appear on the track "Barbapapa".

Would you encourage them to get into rap?

Totally.

For the moment it is embryonic, they are at the stage of fun: enjoy caterings in concert halls, unlimited buffets in hotels when you accompany the daron during his promotion!

There is nothing professional, we do not project ourselves and maybe they will do the opposite in reaction to the adult world.

They might want to be accountants!

How did your father, who we discover in the documentary, react when you launched yourself into a musical career?

It is still not easy for my father!

He does not really accept the fact that artistic professions or rap in particular, it is a profession.

For him it will stop, it's a passion, like a kind of crisis that goes on for a bit!

Every quarter he questions me and says "what are you going to do next then?"

Have you thought about your retraining?

“It's been 15 years that we have regularly had the same discussion about my professional future.

He still did not understand that we could die a rapper in fact!

For him, having a job means having flour on your hands or grease under your fingernails.

In this song "Barbapapa", your children take up the punchline of "KYLL" (a feat with Booba): "At the next birthday we want Marine in piñata".

Do you discuss political issues with them?

We tackle political issues together but it is absolutely not educational.

The goal is not to prepare them for a particular political sensibility, when we talk about it it's in

mode

.

Rather than going into the pedagogy to prepare for a nice little citizen, I especially want them to sharpen their satirical gaze on the political world which seems outdated on many points.

I have the impression that it's an old world that doesn't suit us as children, this world where nothing sticks out, where you have to be perfectly in boxes.

We overflow on four boxes at the same time.

The

song

is a dark song in the subject, it talks about what we are, a mixed family.

It is a piece which is in the acceptance of oneself and which castigates political speeches, especially of the extreme right, for wanting to impose a single French way of life.

On Twitter, you relayed a teacher's message where you appear in a textbook in the United States.

But in France, are you more at the heart of controversy?

It's a comfortable position for me.

It is the role of art to serve at the same time as a support for study, but also to disturb a certain intelligentsia a little well-thinking, certain editorialists who have sometimes preconceived ideas, certain politicians… This is the position of the artist and I'm not going to complain.

This is the role and the profession that I have chosen.

In this album "Grand Médine", you made feats with several rappers of the young generation, Bigflo and Oli, but also Koba LaD and Larry in "Grand Paris II".

Do you have the will to connect the generations?

I was a rap listener so I did not participate in the birth of this movement.

So I feel a bit at the crossroads of what rap is today.

At the same time by representing a certain tradition of what rap was, from songs to texts and at the same time in something lighter on a more melodious register.

I'm quite happy to be able to unite and bring together different currents, eras and styles.

In the documentary, there is the question of leaving a mark in the world of music.

It's not important to me at all.

Some people think that I have classics today, but we don't have the same definition of the word classic ... For me it's a timeless piece, which is unanimous between different generations and when we quote the name of the artist you can immediately release one or two pieces from your repertoire.

It's not my case.

I know it and I live it very well.

I'm not absolutely chasing commercial success.

I just try to be clear about my place in rap and what I represent: passion, love of music and especially longevity, an important quality.

On the title “Tête à cœur” with Bigflo and Oli, you address the question of the passage of time.

Is this something that worries you?

This is really what terrifies me in my adult life.

I anticipate a lot, I'm in a dystopia all the time in my head, in an anticipation novel about what my life and our lives will be like in a while, and that terrifies me.

The simple idea of ​​knowing that my children at some point will leave the family home, build their own family ... I am in a very emotional register regarding the passing of time, it is nostalgia mixed with apprehension. , I can't even sort this out yet.

I can cry over

Renaud's

because he is talking about that.

I'm on edge.

Seeing my loved ones leave, the time that takes away friendships, that kind of thing, that terrifies me.

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