Live Mechanics

MetroFrance :

Your new album "Before I Self Destruct" can be presented as a concept album?
It is a very hard thought, yes. I wanted to create a sort of prequel (a sequence reversed, much like the second Star Wars trilogy, editor's note) to "Get Rich and Die Tryin '", my first album, which told my rise to stardom. I am reminded of some experiences, some people like in the song "Stretch" in which I talk about a pimp who accepted me into his circle because I was sturdy and felt secure with me! More generally, I have not tried to make the perfect disc. I've slipped a few imperfections that my audience did not feel that I became an untouchable guy.

Once they earn lots of money, rappers tend to present themselves as super heroes. You want away from all this?
The money, big cars, pretty girls, the goal sought by many, of course. But what I am interested in rap, is the struggle that we must deliver to achieve this. That's what I want to tell.


You think that gangsta rap has reached its limits?
If you look at sales figures, the most hardcore rappers have never received any real commercial success. If I managed to sell so many records, because my rap is more balanced. I have an aggressive side, but I also write realistic tubes.

For you rap remains a universal language?
I think he is doing well. In my previous album, "Curtis," I shot in Croatia, Kosovo, Peru, India, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela ... Every time I met artists hip-hop stars local assert both musically and in their look.

Can you tell us about your film career?
I already turned in nine films in total. I started with "Get Rich or Die Tryin '", which was very autobiographical, an experience that taught me a lot. Since I shot with De Niro, Pacino in "The law and order" and also "13", a remake of a French film with Mickey Rourke and Jason Statham. And above all I made my first film, "Before I Self Destruct", which accompanies the album.

1975. Born in Queens, New York.

1983. When he was only 8 years old, his mother dies in a fire after being drugged.

1994. He was arrested for helping to sell four vials of cocaine to a police officer in civilian clothes.

2000. He received nine bullets in the body before the house of his grandparents.

2003. "Get Rich or Die Tryin '" sold 12 million copies, a record for a debut album.