Soso Maness Announces the Final Chapter of “Rescapé” on Netflix

Soso Maness has something most French rappers spend their entire careers trying to earn: “street credibility.” Like Lacrim, the Marseille rapper never really had to invent a prison record — he has actually served time himself. Yet, paradoxically, Soso Maness has rarely treated incarceration as something to glorify in interviews. Speaking to ABCDR du Son, he emotionally recalled the moment of his arrest:

“If there is one image I have to remember from my career, from my life as a so-called drug dealer, it’s that one. I’m handcuffed, there are police officers everywhere, my mother is crying and I’m out of breath, so I ask her for some water. She gives me a glass and her hands are shaking. That stayed engraved in my mind. That’s where those hard-hitting lines come from. I can go back there very quickly. Maybe part of me is still there. I have other images like that: ‘I’m at the cemetery, I can see your smirks.’ I saw that image right in front of me — I didn’t see it in The Godfather.”

Long before his solo career took off, the rapper had already crossed paths with Demon One and Intouchable through “La Relève.” Many years later, as the legendary Mafia K’1 Fry group returned to the spotlight, they linked up again, connecting Font-Vert and the 94 through sharp writing, raw energy and explosive rap. “La Relève 2” was eventually released in 2025.

When it comes to full-length projects, Soso Maness released À l’aube in 2022. But the Marseille rapper has always been a man of spectacular moments. On Jul’s 13’Organisé, the anthem “Bande organisée” became a massive YouTube success, while his verse — and the now-famous “Zumba, zumba, cafew” line — turned into a phenomenon of its own. He later teamed up with PLK on “Petrouchka”, tearing through streaming platforms with a melody sampled from the Russian musical repertoire.

Soso Maness has also often been ahead of the curve. In 2018, he released a short film titled Rescapé, foreshadowing his debut album of the same name, which arrived in March 2019. The film retraces his journey, from the criminal underworld to the music business. In the process, he builds a genuine narrative universe, reminiscent of the way Ghostface Killah approached storytelling on 36 Seasons. The Rescapé short film has since passed one million views on YouTube.

Gradually, that first experiment developed into an unofficial saga. Music videos and short films began extending the same storyline, starting with Le vent tourne in 2019, written by Soso Maness and directed by Beat Bounce. Le sang appelle le sang followed in 2020, alongside further cinematic extensions of his universe.

The relationship between rap and cinema in France, however, goes back much further. La Haine, released in 1995, and Ma 6-T va crack-er, released in 1997, were among the films that helped bring hip-hop culture firmly into French cinema. In 2000, Akhenaton took things a step further by moving behind the camera himself alongside Kamel Saleh for Comme un aimant, illustrating the increasingly close relationship between the two art forms.

Since then, projects such as SCH’s JVLIVS and Lacrim’s Force & Honneur — which also featured Soso Maness — have pushed the relationship between rap and cinema even further. Artists such as Fianso, Kaaris and many others have increasingly appeared on the big screen, while rappers themselves have moved into acting and filmmaking, and music videos have become more cinematic than ever. The old barrier is gone: rap has entered the mainstream cultural establishment.

After the release of Bronx, a film Soso Maness heavily criticized for its portrayal of Marseille, he challenged Netflix to give him a budget so he could offer his own depiction of the city’s criminal underworld. Several years later, the rapper now announces in his new track “RESCAPÉ” that the final chapter of this story is set to involve Netflix. The announcement comes directly from the artist, although the platform itself has yet to officially reveal the details of the project.

Soso Maness announces the final chapter of “Rescapé” on Netflix

The instrumental production comes from Devil. The producer had previously worked with the Marseille artist on “Le Haqq”, which was produced by Devil and Trizy. He has also contributed two productions to Fadah, on “En Vie” and “Nid d’embrouille.”

The beat feels tailor-made for Soso Maness. He has always had a talent for making something new out of old-school foundations. He is not “old school” in the nostalgic sense — perhaps closer to what Demi Portion might call the “good school” of rap. His technique can stand alongside that of the great rappers of the 1990s, while his writing and hard-earned credibility give him a distinctive position in contemporary French rap.

His fascination with storytelling, already at the heart of Rescapé, has also made him an unusual figure in the scene — more of a leader than a follower. You are unlikely to see Soso Maness endlessly recycling another generic trap record, or what Booba once called “shitty trap”: “I know how to make shitty trap too.”

On the track, the artist uses dark humor to describe the Marseille environment:

“What’s the point of coming to see me? What’s the point of staying with us? This place will contaminate you — you kiss us hello and you end up on CR.”

The visual was directed by Drive By. Built around cinematic narrative sequences, the video primarily serves to announce the story’s final chapter on Netflix. And Drive By was not chosen by accident. The team has already worked on several French rap visuals, including Gambi’s “HÉHÉ HÉ.”

Drive By is also connected to Julio Iborra and Katim Saibi, two figures associated with Marseille’s guerrilla filmmaking scene, notably through Enfant du Soleil, released in 2019, and Microbe, released in 2023. Their involvement further reinforces the cinematic dimension of this new chapter in the Rescapé story.