On Sunday July 3, LEX, a rapper from Thessaloniki, gathered 25,000 people in a stadium in the suburbs of Athens, for what seemed to be the biggest concert in the history of Greek rap.
An enigma for the Greek press
Since the rapper’s performance, in the middle of smoke bombs and in front of an excited crowd, the Greek press has been trying to decipher the phenomenon and question the popularity of an artist who was until then “under the radar of mainstream culture”relieves I Kathimerini, a leading centre-right daily. “I must admit that I frowned in bewilderment [en découvrant les images du concert]. Who is this LEX that fills an entire stadium?” asks himself main character.
To gather so many fans, LEX “needed neither a festival, nor advertising on television, radio or the Internet, nor traditional posters. It was all done by word of mouth and keyboard to keyboard.” note I Kathimerini. “The most important thing we take away from this concert is that the traditional media have little or no influence on young people”, thinks it can be deduced Ta Nea.
The voice of disappointed generations
LEX, real name Alexis Lanaras, is 37 years old. He began his solo career in 2014 and today asserts himself as “the best or at least the most important rapper we have right now”écrit I Kathimerini. The Athenian daily details: “LEX fans are young people between the ages of 25 and 30, people who, throughout their adult life, have known only a multifaceted crisis (economic, social, values). The words of LEX go straight to their hearts.”
Young Greeks are the most affected in Europe by unemployment, the rate of which is around 35% in this population. A situation that has dragged on since the start of the economic crisis which plunged the country into one of the darkest periods of its contemporary history. “Those who go to see LEX, those who listen to him, admire him, idolize him, do it because he touches their soul. They are young people, with anxieties about their future, unfulfilled dreams and a desire to live better. They are generations disappointed by the world that we, the boomers, leave to them, and who recognize themselves in these ‘political’ or ‘social’ songs.add the site in.gr.
A wind of freedom
In.gr echoes the words of the rapper from Thessaloniki:
“We live love in rented houses / With the electricity cut off and the rents unpaid / Small rooms and huge dreams / Hate like the French suburbs.”
“No insults [dans ses chansons], no helicopters, money, gun or female objects. He describes in notes and words the wall that many young people find in front of them”, welcomes Ta Nea.
“Those who came to the concert filled their hearts with a wind of freedom”, add I Kathimerini, which recalls that the ticket only cost 8 euros. A low price that also appeals Efsyn, “at a time when everyone (artists, organizers, managers) is struggling to make ends meet because of the pandemic and the overpricing of each concert”. The left-wing daily is enthusiastic:
“LEX proved that the cheapest gig of the summer was also the most valuable.”
“I bet LEX hates what’s been going on since his gig,” however concludes main characteralluding to the media madness that now surrounds the rapper. “We all found out about him all of a sudden and we’re all excited to know who he is and what he does. He’s in the mainstream, but I’m sure he’ll come out of it at the first opportunity.”
“What are we missing?”
Only the daily hyperconservative It was is critical of the success of the LEX concert. He devotes his front page of July 5 to the event, headlining about his fans: “Humiliated and starved, they reject democracy.”
Worried and incredulous, It was wonders: “How does a rapper with lyrics about poverty manage to unite 25,000 young people, when political parties cannot unite 2,000 supporters? What are we missing?”
An argument ironically dismantled by the left-wing daily Efsyn : “An unprecedented concert with more than 20,000 uncontrollable young people can therefore shake the established order. A concert which has not been announced in the usual media, which carries a speech of political revolt and which attracts all the spotlights is dangerous according to It was.”