“You will see, Jul is the same boy you met at the start of his career”, promises Carine Nahon, the lawyer who organizes and locks all the interviews of the star of urban pop. The 32-year-old Marseillais has become, in seven years, the heavyweight of the recording industry of all genres with a style all his own: a rap filtered through Auto-Tune on a barely nuanced dance rhythm. of a reggaeton or baile funk color – music from the favelas of Rio, Brazil. With over 6.6 million albums sold since his first songs in his teenage bedroom in 2013, he is the most listened to artist on streaming platforms. And this without the support of a major, but on its own label, D’or et de platinum.
Friday, December 9 released his twenty-sixth album, White Heart. This Stakhanovist of rap publishes, in fact, at least two albums a year – if not three or four –, and has his own line of clothing (from jogging to tap dancing). On Saturday June 4, he filled the Stade-Vélodrome for a show lasting almost three hours in a boosted and good-natured atmosphere. It’s hard to believe that he hasn’t changed and remained the shy blond kid he met on the premises of the Parisian radio station Skyrock in December 2015. For the people of Marseille, Jul is the child of the country, who has become the speaker of the kids from the neighborhoods, the prole that looks like them, not a rapper who plays the American. For trendy Parisians, he is the funny extraterrestrial from the planet Mars. And for all those who are over 50, sure of their good taste, an enigma.
Jul started in 2013 on a label in the northern districts. Then got angry with his producers and decided to entrust his business, in September 2015, to two criminal lawyers, Damien Benedetti and Carine Nahon, with whom he had to negotiate, negotiate, reassure, be dismissed many times before finally obtain suitable maintenance conditions. Rare in the media, the champion of CD sales in all categories “accept” every year to respond to a journalist from the written press and to give an interview to a television channel. “He is so nice that he is very protected. His lawyers always gauge the interlocutors he will meet”justifies Leïla Sy, from Duosceno, one of her two scenographers for the Stade-Vélodrome concert.
The only ones who do not have an exam to pass belong to his close entourage, such as Nicolas Romano and Kakou, the sound engineers who have worked with him since 2005, his cousin Romain “Babyboys”, who manages his WhatsApp group from beatmakers (“composers”), his brother Mathieu “Tchyco”, in charge of merchandising, or his “backer”, Mubarak. To hear them, Jul remained simple and humble. “He is a very pleasant person to work with, conscientious and respectful. He never makes an artist’s whim”summarizes Nicolas Romano. “He is extremely touchingly normal”adds Leïla Sy, who, with her partner Pénélope Richard, managed to make the parade of two-wheelers at the Stade-Vélodrome concert digestible.
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