In conversation with .. 6!

In your songs you sing about topics like everyday racism, homophobia, misogyny
and the fight for an open, tolerant society. How important is it to attach political
messages in your work?
Even though it is not the only goal of my album, my music is political and carries a
political message. I really want to fight for a lot of different causes, and music allows me
to do that. In this album, there are songs about rape, prostitution, poverty, differences
… It allows me to highlight some themes that aren’t displayed otherwise to all kinds of
audiences.
As a natural multilinguist, is there a reason why you picked French as the exclusive
language used on “Gore”?
“Gore” is an autobiographical album, it’s been my life for the past few years. French
being my mother tongue, it seemed to me to be the only language I could tell my story
in all honesty and authenticity.
What does the creative process look like when you produce new songs?
I write my own songs. Everything in the album comes from my personal experience,
which is how I create. As for the more technical part, the album was produced by El
Guincho who helped me with putting an order in my thoughts. With discipline and
regularity, we managed to go where we wanted and create the sound that corresponds
to my vision.
What was it like for you to suddenly be a kind of figurehead in the BLM-movement?
And why is it important for you to use your platform as a voice for Black womanhood?
I want to use my platform as a voice for Black womanhood because I’m one myself.
I think I have a responsibility for my little sisters, for strangers, for everyone really.
I think we are all responsible for something, You can be responsible for anything. I
feel responsible for others and not only Black people and Black females, but mostly
people. I wanna be a good example of everything. I’m a human, I make tons of mistakes
and I hope people would forgive me like I would forgive them. But in the meantime,
I have this responsibility to give a good representation because we are lacking in
representation. We don’t have no Black female singers in Europe. We have maybe 3 or 5
that we can name but the rest have no visibility. There are tons of super talented Back
women but we don’t see them because they never get a chance or anything.
It’s very hard to get to the place I am today. And I think that’s why I wanna talk about it.
People suffer and I’m either not sensitive to it and I don’t say anything or I’m sensitive
and I talk about it. Because talking about Black people it’s really about talking about
myself, my sister’s experience, my brother’s experiences. In a nutshell, I am giving
a voice to a problem that is not well received yet in Europe. I think the conversation
is very open in the US because they have been talking about it, they have been vocal
about it. I think in Europe we are very much at the beginning and I think as an artist
it’s important to talk about things that happen outside. And as I always say, the reason
why I talk about it in my music is because it happens in real life.
If we wanna have a change we need to change what’s happening in actual real life so
we don’t have to sing about racism anymore. We all wish we didn’t have to talk about it
because as I always say being Black is only to have more melanin. So it’s very stupid to
just talk about melanin. But the problem is that the same beautiful melanin has gotten
us into a lot of issues that we have no control on and created this system that I wish
never existed. Because it does not allow people to be free.
All I want is for people to be free and be whoever you are, whatever your skin colour is.
I just want you to be free and do what you wanna do, mind your business and be happy.
In addition to music, you also use fashion as a form of expression and have just been
seen in campaigns for Louis Vuitton and Chloé. How important is fashion to you in
your videos?
In my everyday life, I dress according to my state of mind of the day. Sometimes I feel
like a warrior and I’ll dress in a “hip-hop” and a “masculine” way, other days I’ll feel
very confident and I’ll dress like a diva! I like to play with my look, it expresses different
faces of my personality.
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