Benjamin Epps, hailing from Bellevue, stands out as one of the most striking voices in French rap. With his groundbreaking opus “Vous n’êtes pas contents ? Triplé !”, he makes a thunderous entrance into the big leagues. Armed with a sharp flow, thoughtful lyrics, and a finely tuned dose of audacity, he revives the essence of golden-age rap, often overshadowed by today’s modern scene. Since then, the artist has consistently delivered flawless projects, exemplified by the must-hear album “La Grande Désillusion”. Now, he’s back with a bang through “L’Enfant Sacré du Freestyle”, a bold seven-minute track recorded in a repurposed grocery store, alongside Boug Anknow.
Benjamin Epps celebrates the essence of rap, the “noble art”, with “L’Enfant Sacré du Freestyle”!
The instrumental for this track is crafted by the talented DJ Flexta, a cornerstone of the hip-hop movement, known for iconic compositions like “Demain c’est mort” by Guizmo, “Mandingo” by Ol’Kainry, and “Vue d’ici” by Poison Mobutu. The beat, classic yet slightly tense, provides the perfect canvas for Monsieur Epps to dominate the soundscape with explosive and unforgettable punchlines.
The lyrics pack a punch: “The robe doesn’t make the monk, but you need the cassock to enter the monastery.”, a line that echoes the iconic phrase by Tiers Monde: “The robe doesn’t make the monk, but the skirt can make the cross-dresser.”. And the artist doesn’t stop there: “They sell my vinyls on eBay, not knowing they’re holding gold in their hands.”, or “Your hands were made for gold, but you’re stuck in the dirt, you shoved your middle finger in a big intestine.”. These striking lines reflect his mastery of incisive storytelling.
The visuals accompanying the track are striking in their simplicity yet highly effective. The teams of Epps and Mocabe Nation created a raw setup: a microphone in a grocery store, generating an authentic and immersive atmosphere. This is rap in its purest form, unfiltered and unadulterated.
