"Shtar" is "jail" in slang.
And it's now
Shtar Academy (Season 2)
, the second disc of its kind after a first opus released in 2014. Ryan, Perkiz, Blur and Nono are four inmates of the Fresnes prison in the Paris region who have been selected to share verses and microphones with rap stars like Sofiane, known as Fianso, Rim'K, S.Pri Noir, Leto or Heuss L'Enfoiré.
Shtar Academy (Season 2)
is nothing short of wonky and comes across as a solid rap record.
Because as Fianso says in
Cellule de rimes
– a documentary series produced by France Télévisions retracing the project over time – some of the detainees held have
“largely the level”
of the pros in front of the microphone.
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“I'm a producer, I want to make a good album. There were more guys at the start than the four on arrival among the detainees. Those who had less talent, it was not worth displaying them (throwing them as food)
, ”explains to AFP Mouloud Mansouri, thinking head of the project.
"We did not start recording the titles until the prisoners were ready, we prepared them"
, continues the president of the Fu-Jo association (organization of musical events in penitentiary establishments) , himself a former prisoner for a long term.
"We didn't want to introduce them to rappers who sell hundreds of thousands of albums and have the inmates look ridiculous next to it, and we didn't want well-known rappers to feel cheated by lending their image to a project that didn't would not have held the road”
, develops Mouloud Mansouri.
The recording of
Shtar Academy
Volume 2 was epic.
“There, it was complicated, because of the pandemic: confinement, in prison, it lasts longer;
for us, the leaders, it took two years and for them, a big year, including six months of preparation before the sessions
.
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In a defining scene of
Cellule de rimes
, there is
“that click”
, as the producer describes it, when Ryan, the inmate, meets S. Pri Noir, the rapper.
The two met when they were younger.
“Ryan realizes that they were hanging out in the same studio before, that S. Pri Noir was successful in rap, that he is the face of a major fashion brand, that there may be a real thing to do in music"
, dissects Mouloud Mansouri.
"Time that no longer passes"
“Ryan (released since) is in the studio, we call each other every day
,” engages the producer.
“We don't abandon them once the record is released.
I'd like to do concerts with Shtar Ac', we're waiting for Perkiz to come out in hardship, to open for artists, concerts and, if some want to work solo, I can give them a hand like with Ryan"
.
Shtar Academy (Season 2)
avoids the trap of prison glorification, prized by some American “gangsta rap” imitators.
The first track,
Imagine
, paints a clinical picture of prison conditions.
“Prison isn't cute or cool, it's cold, dirty, hard.
It's a time that no longer passes, families who suffer outside, a woman who is waiting for you or not
, ”lists Mouloud Mansouri.
He always has a lot of projects in mind.
Like concerts behind bars with variety stars this time – he dreams of Clara Luciani – or setting up a “
Top Chef -
style workshop
in prison, with Cyril Lignac or Philippe Etchebest , that would be great”.