Oxmo Puccino never goes on vacation, he is not « fan », he said. And when the rapper of 19e arrondissement of Paris takes them, they rarely last more than five days. The only time this outstanding lyricist, awarded several times by Victoires de la Musique, left France for more than a week, he brought back from his trip an album, king without carriage, composed on the guitar. A shame for someone who spent months in the studio finding the right loop, the right word to put on the beat.
It was in February 2012: “A period when I had nothing planned, does he remember. My friends, Vincent Cassel, the director Kim Chapiron and Pierre Grillet, an author-lyricist, were in Brazil to write a film. They said to me: “Come, if you have nothing to do, it’s carnival, it’s going to be great.” » Oxmo Puccino had dreamed of the trip for years. So he takes a flight to Rio de Janeiro and arrives at the home of actor Vincent Cassel.
Between the forest and the beach
In addition to the planned friends, guitarist Seu Jorge is part of the welcoming committee: “I am in the intoxication of the trip, tired, there is the excitement of the carnival, says the rapper. Kim Chapiron says to me: “Here Ox, this is for you.” And he hands me a yellow and green guitar cover. My eyes widen, it was a bossa nova guitar, brand new. I had been itching for two or three years, but I couldn’t do crazy things with the one I had. Seu Jorge tries all his songs and finds the guitar great. »
“I understood that one instrument was enough to make a great song and that everything else was just a story of adaptation, politics, trends. » Oxmo Puccino
After the carnival, the group of friends follows Vincent Cassel to one of his summer residences, towards Salvador de Bahia, in Itacaré. Between the forest and the beach, the city dweller is a little bored: “I had my guitar, my multi-track, a cable and I thought to myself, ‘Why don’t I try to do something?’ I started to listen to Brazilian music; people like Seu Jorge, Chico Buarque or Cartola made crazy albums with a guitar. I said to myself: “If they manage to make whole songs with a guitar, I will be able to make models with my little level.” And so I start scratching melodies and I realize, at the end of the trip, that I have an album. » Oxmo Puccino had taken two years to write The Weapon of Peace, his previous album, released in 2009, and nine months recording it in the studio. This time, it will have been enough for him to spend thirteen days there.
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