A year after the release of “L’École du micro d’argent” in 1997, a landmark album by IAM, the Fonky Family unveiled “Si Dieu veut”. At the time, rap had not yet become France’s dominant musical genre. Today, many look back on that era as the true “golden age of French rap”. And yet, twenty years after making history with his group, Le Rat Luciano returns to a landscape where rap and urban music now reign supreme. A paradox of the times: rap has never been more successful than since it drifted away from its original foundations. Another contradiction lies in France itself: rappers have never been so popular, even as the country is shaken by extremist ideologies that rap has always opposed.
Le Rat needs no introduction. Within the Fonky Family, he had already established himself as one of the sharpest pens in French rap. His flashes of brilliance in “Si je les avais écoutés”, the classic “Sans rémission”, or “La furie et la foi”, not to mention “L’Amour du risque” from the first Taxi soundtrack, left a lasting mark on an entire generation:
“I’m over the moon
Saying I come from where people are dangerous
Between risk lovers, we understand each other.”
From 2015 onward, Luciano gradually resurfaced, appearing on several high-profile projects. But it was thanks to Jul’s collective releases and the tracks “Je suis Marseille” and “Sous le soleil” that Le Rat Luciano regained massive visibility beyond the circle of rap purists. On “Sous le soleil”, he delivers a memorable verse—a time capsule of an older Marseille, the postcard version rather than the one filling the crime pages:
“My tears are drops of ink but I write on liquid crystals
After a few shots, I see us young again
One of the finest outlaw lives, nineteen-eighty-something
Back then, we were as free as art
X time later, it’s zero pain like the weapon, my silence like a tear
Pa-pa-pim, man down, deceased.”
This year, the artist returns with the album “Magma”, already seen as a potential new milestone in his career. The rapper from Marseille has just released “Au nom de”, an electro-pop track far removed from the sound that built the FF legend. For this comeback, Le Rat refuses to recycle the past—he moves forward, without nostalgia.
Le Rat Luciano steps back to the mic with “Au nom de”!
The track’s production is handled by BBP. A member of QLF, the beatmaker is behind some of PNL’s biggest successes, including “Naha”, “91’s”, and “Deux frères”. He later collaborated with a wide range of artists: Vald on “Dieu Merci”, DA Uzi on “WeLaRue 10”, and Souffrance and Soprano on “Compte double”. His energetic electro-pop production, driven by a very high BPM, gives Le Rat an entirely new terrain on which he delivers a tightly controlled verse. Few rappers of his generation venture into such soundscapes. Electro and R’n’B long carried a stigma among the old guard. AKH famously said in “C’est ça mon frère”: “Anyway, his projects are trash. Electro Cypher? Techno garbage. Fed by IAM? Never in my life.” Yet Le Rat fully embraces this direction, delivering a blazing track:
“We mourn Marianne’s love
A granite heart, yet it used to be marshmallow
Spend your whole life fighting like Abdouraguimov
It dims you so you can shine like a diamond.”
followed by:
“Everything has a price, ambush, papa, pim
It’s no longer the Republic, it’s America
We only get what we deserve, public enemy wasn’t Mesrine
Yeah, these are our laws, not the book’s.”
The visual accompanying the track—showing Le Rat Luciano in a futuristic studio that eventually bursts into flames—was created by Baptiste Guilmard. The director has been stacking major productions, including “Solaar pleure” for MC Solaar and “Mirage” for B.B. Jacques.
