Rapper and actor, Abdramane Diakité plays the role of Tony in the series -

Mika Cotellon / Netflix

  • “Caïd” is available on Netflix.

  • The series takes place on the set of a rap clip in a city in the south of France, where everything will change.

  • If rap is not the subject of the series, it still invites itself many times in the series.

If

Caïd

is above all a story of gang warfare, it is also a story of rap.

Available since Wednesday on Netflix, the French series of Ange Basterga and Nicolas Lopez, co-written with Nicolas Peufaillit, has for starting point the shooting of a clip, which does not go as planned.

For good reason, Tony, the rapper followed by the directors of this video, is also at the head of a drug trade, and he is caught up by the appetite of a rival boss.

But the connection with music does not end there.

Whether in its casting, its production or its soundtrack, the series gives pride of place to French rap.

It is invited from the opening credits and gives rhythm to each of the episodes, where original creations and pre-existing hits mingle.

And he is also at the origin of the meeting of the main actor and one of the directors.

From clip to series

Before this project for Netflix, Nicolas Lopez, originally from Martigues (where the series was partially shot), made short films and a lot of rap clips, more than 200. “That's how I learned. my job, ”he explains to

20 Minutes

.

He notably worked with Lacrim, or with Soso Maness, to whom he is close.

"I started my career as a director with him, the first clip I made is his," he says.

Several of his titles appear in the soundtrack, such as

A la muerte

or

Sadio Maness

.

It was also on a video shoot that Nicolas Lopez met Abdramane Diakité, by his stage name KID, who plays the role of Tony in the series.

The director gave the rapper the main role of this guy who tries to escape through rap, and also gave him part of the soundtrack.

Five titles were thus written and interpreted by him for the series.

A series with rap, but not about rap

To these original creations are added pre-existing titles such as the cult

Belsunce Breakdown

by Bouga, or the song

RAC

by SCH, whose clip can echo certain scenes from

Caïd

.

There is also an unreleased Naps,

Le petit Marseillais

, which appears in episode 2 while recording in the studio.

If the soundtrack is very Marseille, Parisians are also present, such as Ninho, Maes or Niro, who are also part of the director's personal playlist.

“These were songs that we put on because we liked them, songs that I liked to listen to”, explains Nicolas Lopez.

Music that truly permeates the series, and plays a role in it as well.

“We made sure to have music integrated into the sequences, she is really in the scene, she can come out of a window of an apartment, of a passing car… It was to underline the realistic side that 'we wanted to bring'.

Despite its omnipresence, however,

Caïd

should not be seen as

 a series on rap and its industry, as

Validé

by Franck Gastambide could have been for Canal +.

Music is one of the elements, but remains secondary.

“Rap is a plus.

Our point of view is Tony, he wants to get out of his condition and use his talent as a rapper to get out of it.

Basically it's a series about a city boss, a drug trafficker, ”says Nicolas Lopez.

A character inspired by reality?

“It's an invention, it's mostly things that touch me.

I grew up in these cities, I wanted to portray a reality, to show that drug trafficker is not a good life.

These are things that I know well so I felt legitimate to tell on the screen.

"

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