Two days before the release of his new album, the rapper Vald (Valentin Le Du of his real name) receives in a luxury hotel in the district of the Opera, in Paris. He is preparing an event there for five hundred of his fans, chosen at random from among the thirty thousand who have already ordered his fourth album, V, on sale from Friday 4 February. The walls of the Intercontinental vibrate under the effect of the infrabass of his new songs. In the living room, all in gilding and dyeing of red velvet, chairs have been installed to receive the public who, due to the health crisis, will not have the right to get up. Vald, 29, is a little disappointed: « I wanted to do a wild concert in an atypical place, but since standing concerts are prohibited by the government, we will only listen to sound. There, we settle it but it’s still a little too strong “, he said, his eyes teasing, his face emaciated and his blond hair still a little crazy.
The rapper from Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis) has not yet beaten the record of his colleague Orelsan, who was already certified gold before the release of Civilisation, November 19, 2021, but it’s on track. The two have in common the same love of rap, its jokes, its outrageousness or its ironic social descriptions. True geeks, pure products of the Internet, they recorded for V le duo Peon, a tribute to the strategy video game Warcraft III, which, for Vald, is an allegory of the consumer society, of uninhibited capitalism: « I felt I had a theme for Orelsan, details Vald, a mysterious geek reference, more mysterious than geek by the way. I called him and explained the theme to him and we managed to make this title. »
The two rappers had first crossed paths on the album of Orelsan’s friend, Gringe, then seen each other once more during the filming of video clips and concerts, but knew each other little while esteeming each other mutually: « I feel like we respect the same art, summarizes Vald. We do the same thing but not in the same way. We are both painters. »
imaginary worlds
Vald likes to cover his tracks, referring to imaginary worlds like the city Agartha, a literary creation of the 19th century.e century. He enjoys multiplying the flows on his songs, able to reproduce in French that of American rappers – Eminem, Method Man or Migos –, and then takes an often mean and uncompromising look at the world around him. From its first success, Hello, he mocks the codes of street culture or speaks for a generation that constantly questions everything.
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