One track at a time, Ichon and his clique Bon Gamin – Myth Syzer, Loveni and, by association, Bonnie Banane and Muddy Monk – redefine the rules of the game by blurring the boundaries between rap, pop, lyrical songs, and electronic music. In 2020, the image of the bad boy cultivated by Yann Bella Ola gives way to that of a vulnerable and sensitive human being. He asserts himself through a refined and fluid style of dress, playing with gender codes and assuming his femininity in a binary world. For this first album, the Montreuil artist, who’s taken up the piano, collaborated with PH Trigano, Crayon, and Adrien Pallot. The result is 15 tracks that are sometimes difficult to classify, often at the crossroads of genres, each more original than the last, touching on bass music, funk, R&B, and neo-soul. Ichon sings, speaks, clamours, raps, surprises with his playful diction and the flexibility of his flow. The thirty-year-old’s words express the ills, the generalized anxiety, and the mixed feelings of young adults who are facing the need to accept their identity (“Presque deux”, “Miroir”, “Pas Facile”) to find their place in a society where the injunction to be or not to be is paramount. To free himself from these shackles, the rapper invites us to appreciate his originality, his difference (“911”), and above all to recognise human frailty (“SOS”, which takes up the delicate subject of suicide – death is very present on the album). Released on his birthday, September 11th, the video for “911” reveals a polished aesthetic that evokes that of West Coast rappers – between eccentric visual concepts and an absurdist staging. Perhaps because he and I are the same age, I’m moved by his straightforward poetry, touched by the accuracy of his lyrics echoing my own experience. Like an irrepressible urge to give it another shot, yet again. A proposal that comes from the heart and which, for real, deserves the title of best album of the year.
Latest 360 Content
Interview Classical/classique
Transforming Hiroshima mon amour into contemporary opera: Christian Lapointe and Rosa Lind tell the story
By Marilyn Bouchard
Concert review Classical/classique
“Hiroshima, mon amour”: An Evening to Remember
By Marilyn Bouchard
Concert review Électro/euro-disco
Art of the Line: Klangkarussell’s Euro Vision at SAT
By Loic Minty
Dossier
Centroamérica – a powerful docu-play about truth and connection in an age of distance and denial
By Stephan Boissonneault
Album review classique/Sacred Music/Latino/Classical/Pop 2025
Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
By Stephan Boissonneault
Album review Experimental / Contemporary/expérimental / contemporain/Rock/psych 2025
Grails – Miracle Music
By Stephan Boissonneault
Album review Electronic/Indigenous peoples 2025
The Halluci Nation – Path of the Baby Face
By Stephan Boissonneault
Interview Classical/classique
A lap steel guitar choir and an angel to end the Innovations en concert 24-25 season
By Frédéric Cardin
Concert review classique/Classical/Traditional
The OSM and Abel Selaocoe: Evenings When You’d Like to Stop Time
By Judith Hamel
Concert review Classical/classique
Reaching for the sky: Francis Choinière’s challenge to end his OPCM’s 10th season
By Frédéric Cardin
Album review art rock/Pop/Rock/électro-indie/Electronic 2025
Stereolab – Instant Holograms On Metal Film
By Stephan Boissonneault
Interview expérimental / contemporain/Classical/classique
SMCQ | In memoriam Jocelyn Morlock
By Alain Brunet
Album review Classical/classique 2025