Souldia, an extraordinary rapper
Souldia
Prolific rapper Souldia released his 11th career solo album on Friday. An opus called Unconventional, “to remind people and myself that I'm not the kind of artist who goes towards the trend, that I like to do things like the others don't,” he said in an interview with Métro.
In Quebec, Souldia considers doing “a separate rap” that it mixes on this album with other styles of music, such as rock or even punk rock. In this regard, the album's final track, Never in Life, sounds much more like a Blink-182 song than a classic hip-hop track. < /p>
And Souldia doesn't just create differently, it creates a lot.
A busy schedule
The rapper from Quebec City likes to work under pressure. When he has no deadline to meet, no challenge to meet, he “finds it boring”.
“I spend two or three months without writing, I imbibe of my everyday life, of those of the people around me, he explains, summarizing to Métro his creative process. When it's been long enough, I come back to the studio and I find it easy to make songs. I'm going to rent a chalet, bring my whole team and we're going to create intensively quickly. »
This is the method the rapper has found to deliver a lot of material while keeping time to take care of his family, shoot his music videos and give his many concerts.
Because that the life of an artist, for Souldia, can be exhausting. After performing 52 shows over the past few months, he is now taking a month-long hiatus for the release of his album and then heading back out on a major tour all summer.
“I happen to do four showsa week and sleep three hours a night. But I'm careful; when I feel like I'm too burnt out, on the verge of freaking out at the frette, I take breaks and eventually I'm fine. »
Souldia. Photo: Denis Germain/Metro
An evolving art
Even though this is their 11th album, Souldia manages not to repeat themselves too much. To do this, he created a bank that lists the words he used profusely in his previous opuses. These become forbidden words, a strategy that Souldia has implemented in order to diversify its vocabulary.
The exercise is less obvious when we talk about the themes it addresses, but the artist makes an effort.
“I am aware that I often talk about the street, about crime, but that's only music, that's what I know. On the other hand, I will talk about it in a different way”, says the rapper with a tumultuous past, released from prison 10 years ago.
But becoming a father has also changed his way describe. “Without lightening my content, I am aware that I have to answer my children if they ask me questions about such and such words”, says the one who also believes that he has gained in maturity.
Finished, therefore, the bold texts towards women. Souldia even warns guest rappers on her album that her young daughter will listen to them.
Pay It Forward
The road to Souldia has been paved with success for some time now. Just in the last year, he has, in particular, offered a big show on the main stage of the Francos, charmed the general public during a remarkable interview on Everyone talks about itand won the Félix for rap album of the year at the last Gala de l
Despite everything, he keeps his feet on the ground.
“This morning, I went for coffee with Dans la rue. I was in the same situation as them when I was young, using the same community services. I used to sleep in stairwells, so now when I sleep in the most luxurious hotels in the world, I still think about that,” he says.
Today, the rapper wants to pay it forward. It is for this reason, among other things, that he acts as a mentor to the young rapper Jay Jay. “We must train the next soldiers, share our knowledge with them to have a little grain of us in future generations,” says Souldia.
Her biggest advice? Have a good discipline and a good entourage. “It was a long time before we accepted rappers on the front of the stage. Let's show them that we have serious teams, like all the great artists of this world.”
Souldia is about to attack festival season this summer. It all starts with her album launch on June 16 at the MTelus as part of the Francos.
