Music show: Documentary shines spotlight on life of late French producer DJ Mehdi

FRANCE 24 English

On today's arts24 music show, Jennifer Ben Brahim chats with Thibaut de Longeville, director of the award-winning documentary series "DJ Mehdi: Made in France". The French-Tunisian producer was one of the rare musicians to unite the worlds of hip-hop and electro as well as being synonymous with the Ed Banger label – the pioneers of the "French Touch" movement. DJ Mehdi passed away in September 2011 after a tragic accident; he was only 34 years old. The six-part documentary series weaves together archival footage, first-hand accounts from loved ones and musicians to form a rich tapestry that was the life of DJ Mehdi.  Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00Hello and thanks for joining us, I'm Jennifer Benbrahim, coming up on today's weekly music

00:15show on France 24.

00:17You had to play the beat all the time, all the time, all the time, all the time.

00:20That's how I learned, that's how I perfected myself.

00:28Then you play the beat and you record the sample in pass-pass at the same time.

00:46Thank you so much for joining us.

01:06Thanks for having me.

01:07Now, you're no stranger to making documentaries.

01:09You have over 10 documentary features under your belt, if I'm correct, including your

01:15award-winning debut, which was Just For Kicks, a documentary about sneakers, hip-hop and

01:19a corporate game.

01:20Now, this feels very different because it's deeply personal.

01:23DJ Mehdi was in fact one of your closest friends.

01:26My best friend, actually.

01:27Your best friend.

01:28So how did you approach making this docuseries about someone who is so dear to you?

01:33It's probably the hardest project I've ever had to do.

01:38Well, he was obviously a very dear friend.

01:41One of the things that worked in my favor was that I shot a lot of footage with him,

01:48kind of candidly, really, with no particular destination in mind.

01:51I mean, we both love music and love film and he's actually the person that convinced me

01:58to trust my ambitions and start filming.

02:03So I'm thankful to him because I'm now a director and have my own independent production company.

02:09So, you know, there's a lot of personal elements that come into play in this document, which

02:15I hope works in its favor.

02:19I try to, as much as possible, distance myself and not put myself so much in the storytelling

02:26and in the picture to try to get somewhat of an objective perspective.

02:30How did you two meet?

02:31How did you become best friends?

02:33We actually met through Kerry James, which was, you know, the leader of his first group,

02:39Ideal J, you know, big time rapper and now actor, producer in France.

02:47But we were kids, basically.

02:49We were kids on the hip hop scene in Paris, which was already kind of a, you know, super

02:56niche environment.

02:57And we were underaged.

03:00You know, Mehdi and Kerry had a group as like, you know, kid rappers, sort of like a crisscross.

03:07And they were professional musicians at age 15.

03:11And so I'm three years older than them.

03:13They're 15 years old, actually 14 years old when I met them.

03:16And I'm 17.

03:17And we're both in clubs and at the hip hop concerts where, you know, it's early 90s,

03:23it's kind of rugged.

03:25And we're not allowed to be there.

03:27So we quickly connected and, you know, became friends ever since.

03:31Music documentaries, what is great about them is that they give a glimpse into some of our

03:34favorite artists, like we see in DJ Mehdi, Made in France.

03:39But we've seen the likes of ones about Amy Winehouse, Tina Turner and Kanye West.

03:44In your opinion, what makes a good music documentary?

03:47Well, great question.

03:49I'm a big fan of music documentaries, obviously, any genre.

03:52So watch all of them.

03:54For me, it's actually, there's something about the icon, you know, Bob Marley, you name it,

04:01the Beatles.

04:02There's something about like, oh, understanding what they're about and their life story and

04:07when it's a big superstar.

04:09In the case of Mehdi, the challenge is a bit different because the, you know, the promise

04:15is we're going to tell you a story about someone you don't know.

04:19Um, so, you know, in a sense, it's kind of like a sugar man story where you have to go

04:24along and sort of learn who the person is about and what in turn that dictated was that.

04:33And for me, that's really the part that I like most about music documentaries is the

04:37music making, is the art of making it.

04:39Now, DJ Mehdi or Mehdi Favelis Essadi grew up in the northwestern suburbs of Paris to

04:44an initiate mother and a French father.

04:46Now, he started his career by working with some of the leading names in French hip hop,

04:50such as MC Soulard and Kerry James.

04:53So here's a quick taste of him at work.

05:16So that was a taste of DJ Mehdi made in France.

05:45Now, Thibaut, in that clip, we can see Mehdi working with a rap collective, 113, on a few

05:51of their albums, most notably Les Princes de la Ville or The Princes of the Town.

05:56Now, that album was really quite a massive turning point for French hip hop.

06:00Yes, for the French culture, landscape as a whole.

06:04And you really get that in the documentary.

06:06You see this change, the shift in France.

06:10And it actually won two awards at the Victoire de la Musique, which is kind of the equivalent

06:13to the Grammy, the French equivalent.

06:15What made DJ Mehdi so attractive to these hip hop artists, to artists in general?

06:20What was his kind of magic touch that he brought to the studio?

06:24I think the quest for originality is something that always went through his process very,

06:29very early on in hip hop in general.

06:34In hip hop out of the United States, there's always the reference of American hip hop.

06:39You know, DJ Premier, Dr. Dre, Kanye West, these massive Pharrell super producers that

06:46people, whoever create or try to create new sounds, they have that reference.

06:52And some people, specifically in French hip hop, a lot of them, in terms of music making,

06:57patterned themselves after certain producers, specifically in the early days.

07:02So if you look at 90s hip hop anywhere in Europe, but specifically in France, that's

07:07been, you know, a really notorious creator of hip hop.

07:13The beats, the music pretty much sounds very similar.

07:18Mehdi's overall style and his point of view on that was try to be original and try to

07:23bring something to the table rather than, you know, take all the inspiration and be

07:28like, yo, I could do music like Pharrell or, you know, DJ Premier.

07:32And so that's really what took by storm French hip hop, French music, and really started

07:38to put the, you know, was the starting point of him becoming an international artist.

07:46Now, another defining moment of DJ Mehdi's career was joining Ed Banger Records.

07:51Yes.

07:52And that was the electro label founded by Pedro Winter, and it became really synonymous

07:56with the French touch movement.

07:57Yep.

07:58And, you know, that included the likes of Justice and Daft Punk as well as DJ Mehdi.

08:03Why did Ed Banger become such a cultural phenomenon and what was Mehdi's role in it?

08:07Well, you know, the label was really the bearer of the torch that, you know, was initiated

08:13by the first wave of the French touch movement, you know, which really brought a lot of artists

08:21from France who really, you know, blew up on the international stage.

08:25So that's Daft Punk and Cassius and Ed Banger was, and Pedro Winter, the founder of the

08:31label was the manager actually of the majority of these acts.

08:34And Ed Banger was really the second chapter that bought what we now call the French touch

08:392.0, which was not only electronica or EDM and sort of that sound, but was more mixed

08:47and super free and, you know, sort of blew up at the time of what we call blog house.

08:53So it's something that came up as well as like, at the same time as MySpace and the

08:58entire digital space.

09:01And, you know, certainly defining a very new sound, which kind of is embodied by Justice

09:07with this sort of mix of like hard French electronica with this rock and roll attitude.

09:14And Mehdi was not just an artist on the label.

09:17His first album was the first album that came out on Ed Banger.

09:22Yeah, I actually want to show our listeners a bit of one of his songs because it was,

09:25really became kind of synonymous with DJ Mehdi.

09:28So let's take a listen to the song, Signature.

09:31So DJ Mehdi Thibault really built a bridge between hip hop and electro music.

09:55And at one point in the documentary, you see Santigold even describing his sound as

09:59a blacktronic.

10:01But not everyone was super happy with this, you know, blending of genres.

10:05And we see that in the documentary, some of his previous collaborators not really understanding

10:10how he could have a foot in each world.

10:11Why do you think that was the case?

10:14Well, there is a social component that's very important in this, is that overall the hip

10:22hop genre, and that's around the world, is mostly a black and brown musical genre.

10:28And, you know, since then it's been proven that everyone could create original hip hop,

10:34but it's early stages.

10:36It's something that initiated in Bronx and wherever you are in the world, it's mostly,

10:40you know, initiated by the lower class sort of poor people.

10:44Whereas the French electronica is mostly from an upper class and mostly like white kids

10:53who produce this music.

10:57The notorious ones are like mostly sort of quote unquote a white music movement.

11:04Whereas, you know, oddly enough, the roots of the electronic musical movement and of

11:09hip hop sort of lie in the same family tree.

11:14That's funk, soul, disco, and sort of these roots begat both hip hop in, let's say, in

11:22New York City in the US and then Chicago house music and Detroit techno music.

11:27And they're all linked by, number one, you know, the usage of samplers and drum machines.

11:32But as they grew, they sort of became a part specifically on the world stage.

11:37Whereas, you know, in the US, hip hop and house music would kind of be mixed and, you

11:42know, everyone would understand these are like, you know, they're all three, hip hop,

11:46house and techno music, ghetto music.

11:49I'm afraid we've come to the end of the show.

11:50It's gone very quickly.

11:52And I want to thank you for coming and talking about DJ Mehdi made in France.

11:56And also, the documentary is coming out on Arte on the 12th of September and on its YouTube

12:02channel.

12:03And as we were talking a bit previously, there's going to be an event around the release of

12:08a documentary at Paris' La Gaieté Lyrique.

12:11There'll be a series of talks and concerts on the 14th of September.

12:14So please go and check it out.

12:16And before we go, just enough time to tell you about my album of the week from an electronic

12:20artist continuing DJ Mehdi's legacy.

12:23I'm sure you'll agree with me on blending dance music and hip hop.

12:26This is British producer and DJ Fred again.

12:29And he's back with a new album called 10 Days with collaborations, including Sampha, Skrillex

12:34and Anderson .Paak.

12:35And we can hear this on the next song, Places to Be.

12:38Now, for more arts and culture, you can follow us on social media.

12:41There's more news coming up on France 24 just after this.

13:08Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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