Interview with Oxmo Puccino

O = Oxmo Puccino
M = Samir Meghelli

M: What did you think of The Fat Boys when you heard them?

O: I literally felt the street, the concrete. The streets are

something that you live, but that you can't feel elsewhere, except in

Hip Hop. And so, it was the first time I felt that in music, you know

what I'm sayin'.  Just even the beatboxing and the music sounded

street. And their whole style on the album cover: they were raw with

it, with their hats and leather jackets, you understand what I'm

sayin? You didn't see that here [in Paris]. We were outdated. So,

we were going crazy over that whole style. It was almost musical.

You could imagine an entire way of life behind these pictures. It

helped us to develop our imagination. It was the first time that I

heard Rap music.

M: What kind of music were you hearing in your home?

O: My parents' records.

M: Like what?

O: They didn't buy any more records after a while, so it was just

whatever was in the basement. And for years, it was just a record of

The Temptations, a Bob Marley record, a Michael Jackson record. There was… What else was there? There were records of traditional music

from Mali. And what else was there? And a Jazz record. And those

were the only ones that I listened to. They were the only ones before

I had my own boombox.

M: So, you've always had a wide range of musical influences. When did

you decide that you wanted to actually do Hip Hop yourself? Where did

you begin seeing Hip Hop in the streets of the Nineteenth?

O: Right on my street. My boys, they took the idea from [the film]

"Breakstreet '84" [released with the title "Breakin'" in the United States]. They had

the piece of cardboard, they put it on the ground, and they danced on

it. They were spinning on their heads and all that. After that,

there was [the film] "Beat Street." That movie had us all going crazy.

"Beat Street" was the movie that traumatized us. When I saw it, it was

like seeing "Star Wars." The day after you saw it, you immediately

started breakin', and it only seemed normal.

M: Did you break, too?

O: Yeah, I danced, too. I also did graff.

M: When did you begin doing graffiti?

O: I began graff when I was fourteen or fifteen years old.

M: What was your tag name?

O: BORE. My clique was A.D.M. Association De Malfaiteurs

[Association of Bad Boys]. They're still my peoples today. They're

the ones that got me into rapping. Just my peoples from my

neighborhood.

M: How did you first learn to do graff?

O: I used to draw a lot.

M: You were drawing before then?

O: I did nothing but draw. Draw, draw, draw, more than I wrote.

Eventually, I began tagging. There were guys like Mobb2 who were

doing it, BBC's Kid, Jay-One. I met MEO, SLICE2, DEUCE. They were

graff writers from here who were well known. And, they explained

their different styles to me, and the history of BOXER's tags. We

would go to Stalingrad where it still smelled like paint, and the

colors were all fresh. It was just crazy. Naturally, you reproduce,

you design, you tag, you look for new places to bomb.

M: Where were you tagging?

O: In the subway, before getting arrested by the police. My career

ended there.

M: What lines?

O: Line 7. 7 Bis. Also, the Châtelet-Porte Des Lilas line. Line 11,

I think. By the way, that's the line I get arrested on. At the time,

I did graff in Paris, and there were a lot of abandoned lots, before

they were rebuilt on. And, before they did the construction work,

they left the walls empty and the houses didn't have fences, so there

were little gatherings where you could come and paint. It would be

like a graffiti competition.

M: Where were you getting your music? Was it on the radio? Were you

getting it from stores?

O: Those were the golden years of Rap, '94-'95. The apex of Rap was

Biggie's first release, the arrival of Das EFX, Blahzay Blahzay, the

best of DJ Premier, Dr. Dre. At that time, it was just crazy. The

Brand Nubians came out a few years before that. Outkast came out. It

was wild. We started getting MTV in France a little bit. And, at the

time, I was going to Switzerland. I made some trips there because the

American artists weren't coming to France. They were going to

Switzerland to do shows. So, I went out there.

M: Who did you see in Switzerland? Do you remember the first concert

you went to in Switzerland?

O: The first in Switzerland, I don't remember anymore. Maybe it was TLC.

M: What about the first one ever?

O: Public Enemy, in '87 I think.

M: What did you think when you first saw Public Enemy?

O: It was straight crazy, straight crazy, straight crazy. The

production, Terminator X with his big glasses, Flavor Flav played a

little piano, it was just crazy. At that time, you couldn't see that

anywhere in France. We were a little behind. Public Enemy on stage?

We saw them for many years on television, but the Americans weren't

coming to France very much, only for shows at small venues. Shows at

big venues were rare. But, that Public Enemy concert was the

beginning of a major arrival of Hip Hop in France. It was just crazy.

It was like a kick in the ass.

M: Who were some of the first French rappers that you heard at that

time that inspired you to want to rap yourself?

O: Kery James, definitely Kery James.

M: At that time?

O: '94. It was Kery James, because I was following him already in

concert. I was a fan. And, one day, we met in Switzerland. It was

snowing that day. Manu Key and Kery James started freestyling

acapella. And, that day there, French Hip Hop won me over. After

that, I started trying to write my own rhymes, and I began rapping in

'94.

M: Do you remember the first rhyme you wrote?

O: I remember some of the first ones, but not the very first. Rhymes

like "Viens Dans Ma Rue" ["Come To My Street"]. In that one, I was

just talking about my block?

M: You wrote it to a track?

O: Yeah, because when I began rapping, I wanted to have my own beats

right away. I didn't want to write to American beats. I wanted to

have my sound, just for me, and I was lucky enough to have a producer

by the name of Vinh who, by the way, was way ahead of his time. And I

immediately felt his beats. So, some of my first songs were "Viens

Dans Ma Rue" ["Come To My Street"], "Bonhomme De Neige" ["The

Snowman"], which was a fictional story about a guy that got caught up

in the drug game. Next, what was there? I don't remember any more,

but there are some that are gonna come out on a mixtape some time soon.

M: Where was your first performance? When did you first have the

opportunity to perform at a concert?

O: It was at the auditorium in Vitry-Sur-Seine, the auditorium of

Mafia K'1 Fry. They had a little concert for the hood. There was

113, Rohff, OGB, all them. And, it was my first concert with Bauza.

It was crazy! It had the spirit of all the concerts we went on to do

after that time. We came on stage dressed right, with a prepared

show, with an intro, but remember, it was a small auditorium, you know

what I'm sayin. And it was straight hood. There was all the folks

from Vitry, 113. It was cool.

M: How do you prepare for a show? You were featured in The Source

Magazine, and they said that you did one of the best shows of the year.

O: Before, we used to practice every Tuesday at the auditorium in Vitry.

M: And what about now, today, how do you prepare?

O: Nowadays, we use a rehearsal studio, and practice all day, with a

DJ.  We do concerts all over France, in big cities, small cities, in

other countries. We do concerts that are packed, and also concerts

where there's barely anybody.

M: And when did you first get signed to your label, Delabel? How did

that all come together?

O: Well, I was always doing compilations, and they sold pretty well.

And there was one in particular, by DJ Kheops, the DJ for IAM, that

I did a song for. My song got chosen as the single for the

compilation, and so they had me do a video for it. And that was that.

The record label was feelin it. They got in touch with me and it

was a done deal. It all went real quick. I did that song in

August/September, I was signed in October/November I think, and I was

in the studio recording my album in December/January, and it was

released in April.

M: What year was that?

O: 1998.

M: Describe the experience of recording your first album.

O: I arrived at a large studio...

M: What studio specifically?

O: I began working at Puisse-Trente, a large Parisian studio, in the

19th arrondisement. Then, I was working in Toulouse, outside of

Paris, to be in better working conditions. In that case, I was in the

studio all day long. At night you could wake up and go straight to

the studio because you're staying right next door to it. You live the

thing. You know you're gonna release something that's gonna be heard,

something that's long awaited. It's like your first big chance, your

first album, so it's important, you know what I'm sayin.

M: Did you write all new songs for the album, or did you use songs

that you had written before?

O: No, I had songs that I had written before. But, some songs I did

right there in the studio, like, "Hitman," "Peu de gens le savent"

("Few People Know"), and "24 Heures à Vivre" ("24 Hours To Live").

The biggest songs, I wrote before that time.

M: How did you arrive at the title for that album, Opéra Puccino?

O: The idea came from my man that I was chillin' with a lot at the

time, Thibaut, who really taught me a lot about Rap, especially

American Rap.  He worked with me on the album, and he had a lot of good

ideas. And when he listened to album, he said to me, "It reminds me

of an opera."  So, he gave me the concept, like even for the album

cover, with the masks, where one is smiling and the other is sad. The

idea was that the album is really a mix of good times and bad times,

of both those extremes. So, when he said to me, "It's like in an

opera,"  I was like, "Oh yeah, that sounds good, Opéra Puccino."

TO CHECK OUT THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW, GET YOUR COPY OF "THA GLOBAL CIPHA: HIP HOP CULTURE AND CONSCIOUSNESS"….

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