Bidayatan Jadida (بداية جديدة) –

 New Beginnings Chapter 4

 

 

A Friday night in a Paris nightclub,

 

Kim Namjoon, Jeon Jungkook, and Jung Hoseok, along with their two bodyguards, arrived at the club precisely at midnight in a black sleek Mercedes sedan. The vehicle was designed with a masculine beauty with deep tinted windows and elegant leather seats that heated up at the touch of a button, ample legroom, and subtly hinted at the wealth of the occupants inside it. The Parisian club was located in a sleek modern building in a part of downtown Paris that the average tourists didn’t know about.  Despite its location, the technology in the club was state of the art and the décor eye-catching and alluring. The club was already packed with the show set to start in thirty minutes. Hoseok hoped that the artist didn’t pull a “Drake” and arrive 2 hours past the start time. Although he was excited about the show, he was tired.

Namjoon, Jungkook, and Hoseok entered the club without being recognized and they soon realized that the crowd that had come to see Jazz and Yamina would not typically be fans of BTS. Yamina was known in the Paris music industry as a seriously socially conscious hip hop artist despite being a former member of the bubble gum pop girl group. And as the guys would discover tonight Jasmine Marlohe was a hardcore female rapper and tongue technologist as well being one of Yamina’s main writing partners and producers. Yet Yamina and Jasmine for that matter didn’t fall in the extremes of female hip hop in regard to their presentation and visual aesthetics. Their fashion nor mannerisms weren’t “masculine”, as some would say of the old school female hip hop legends such as Queen Latifah, and Monie Love nor were they overly ualized as per se Lil’ Kim, Nikki Minaj, or Megan the Stallion for example.  Yamina and Jazz had a hardness as well as softness and beauty that was real and approachable, yet both are full of fire and fierceness. Namjoon remembers reading a small Billboard magazine article about Yamina a year and a half ago where she talked about her and Jasmines’ refusal to fall into the trappings of the misogyny of the hip-hop industry in France. That misogyny attempted to dictate what would sell for a female rapper. Yet, Yamina’s unwillingness to hide her essence is what attracted Namjoon to her music. It was honest, deep, sometimes full of hurt or anger (or both), and always passionate. She inspired him. And even though he spoke none of the languages that she did (Arabic, Spanish and French) her music moved him.  Much like Namjoon’s and BTS’s music moved the world.

 

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For those of you who don’t know or are unfamiliar with the French rap scene, it’s time to get acquainted. France has the second-largest hip-hop industry in the world behind the United States and has produced famous rappers of global renown like MC Solaar and a. But what about les femmes du rap? French female rappers — les rappeuses — have unapologetically challenged the notion that rappers should be men, and by doing so, have revolutionized the genre. And Yamina and Jazz have contributed to the industry in a positive way.

In an interview about three years ago Yamina mentioned that outside of American hip hop influences such as Queen Latifah, Cypress Hill, Tupac, and Lauren Hill, one of her major influences that were closer to home was Diam, or Melanie Georgiades, who was born in Cyprus and moved to a suburb south of Paris when she was three. Diam is France’s most famous female rapper, and her most influential album, “Dans Ma Bulle,” released in February 2006 and debuting at number one on the French charts had had a profound effect on Yamina and how she discovered that she could see herself. She could relate to Diam as she was like her with mixed ethnicity and had her own shares of personal experience like Diam with immigration in both her home country of Spain and then later France. Also, like Diam those powerful and hurtful experiences shaped and influenced Yamina’s music.

While Diam’s lyrics often question what it means to be “French” and the pressure to be “French enough” Yamina’s lyrics explored what it meant to be an African woman and what it meant to be “black enough” or “Arabic enough”. As a Christian Arabic woman, Yamina walked what felt like a precarious line between cultures, language, and religion compounded by the fact that she navigated an industry that was masculine dominated and routinely ate people up and spits them out sometimes completely destroyed. And like Diam, Yamina is known for her politically-charged verses that ruffled too many white privileged feathers.

In the back of the club in the designated artist space, Yamina was seated in the dressing room that she was sharing with Jasmine. She was leaning back in her chair in front of a panel of lighted mirrors. She was dressed and made up but not quite ready to go. She could feel the anxiety attempting to claw its way up her stomach and into . This wasn’t her first solo performance nor would it be her last, but it was her first performance that her girls would not be there. By her girls, her ex-bandmates of Gravity-6: Angelita "Angel" Morales, Suga Daniels, and Honey Ioni. It had been 8 months since she had seen them, although unbeknownst to anyone except for Jasmine, the girls had kept in touch covertly.  Despite the lies that Francoise feeds the media and the fans Yamina really missed them.

Yamina needs to find her focus and find her vibe tonight before she went on stage. She needs to listen to her music. Digging into the large carry-on bag that sat in front of her on the counter she pulled out her iPhone and a small elegant Bluetooth speaker – rose gold – her favorite color. Connecting the two she pulls up the music app quickly going to playlists. Her fingers hover over the one meticulously titled “Vibe: Fierce” nestled between the ones labeled “Vibe: Amor” and “Vibe: Trashy”. For 7 seconds she considered the one titled “Vibe: Female Power”, but decides she needs the one labeled fierce. She needed fierceness more than power right now. Hitting the shuffle button, the first song that comes through the speakers is Ma France a moi by Diam. And with the first beats, Yamina raps along with the Diam. Warming up her voice and relaxing into the beat and into the message. Her head swaying to the tempo of her and Diam’s voice.

 

Ma France à moi

https://lyricstranslate.com/en/Ma-France-moi-Ma-France-moi.html

 

My France she talks loudly, she lives in dreams

She lives in group, talks about the country and dislikes rules

She doesn’t go to school, usually not to do anything

she plays soccer when its sunny and has usually coca in the flask

Its hip hop that makes dance on floors

Sometimes she likes some rock yes, if the melody is sad

She smokes cigarettes and some d’****, but never hard drug

Héroïne, Cocaïne and crack means garbage

Usually in wars against administrations

Their mechanic BEP doesn’t allow them to be a boss

So she struggles and sells sh*t to rich people (rich girls)

But sh*t gives to the mother something to eat, yeah

Because family is love and love is rarely found

She struggles to kick them

She has values, principles and codes

She sleeps early, cuz she spends all her nights on the phone

She seems lazy but inside her, she doesn’t lose time

Some are afraid of her cuz medias wanna show that she is dunce

And if my France gives values to itself its sure to reign better

She keeps her secrets and doesn’t want to bleed. No.

 

{Refrain: x2}

It’s not my France this deep France

the one (France)that we feel ashamed about and wants us to dive

My France doesn’t live in lies

With heart and rage, in light, not in shadow

 

My France she talks with sms, works by msn

reconciles by mail and meet by MMS

She moves by skate, by scooters or bolide

Basile Boli is a lie and Zinedine his synonym [ Zinedine Zidane the soccer player]

She, we mustn’t believe that we dislike her but that she keeps lying

Cuz our parents work since 20 years ago for the same salary

She gave us wings but the sky is VIP

No matter what they say, she knows how to manage a company

She lives in the American way, KFC, MTV base

Foot Locker, Mac Do and 50 Cent

She, it’s some young guys playing basketball whenever they want

who (guys) dream to be Tony Parker on the wooden floor of Spurs?

She, it’s some young women that get by between love,

Courses and muddles,

that (women) listen to Raï, RnB and Zouk

My France gets mixed up, yeah, it’s a rainbow

She bothers u; I know, cuz she doesn’t want u as an example

 

{au Refrain, x2}

 

My France, she got halls and rooms where she shuts up

She is funny and Jamel Debbouze might be her brother

She repaints walls and trains cuz they are dull

She likes to have quarrels cuz they push her not to do anything

She needs sport and to dance to evacuate

She goes to extremes of her madness and risks getting killed

But my France she lives, at least she laughs

and refuses to obey this France that wants us to move

My France, it’s not theirs, that votes extreme

That banishes young, anti-rap on the FM

That thinks she is in Texas, that are afraid of our bands

That venerates Sarkozy (the president now), intolerant and annoying

That watches Julie Lescaut and regrets time of the « Choristes «

That leaves poor dying and put her own parents in centers

No, my France it’s not theirs that celebrates « Le Beaujolais « (it’s wine)

And that pretends to have problems by immigrant’s arrival

That is full of racism but pretend to be openminded

This France hypocrite that is maybe under my window

That thinks that the police have always made a good job

That scrapes herself while she is watching Laurent Gerra

No, it’s not my France, this France deep

So maybe we bother but our values will defeat

And if we are citizens, so get ready youth

My France will guide them until they respect us.

 

 

For the next twenty minutes the flows of Soultana’s Sawt nsaa, RM’s baritone on Do You, Lupe Fiasco’s Paris, Tokyo, and MINO’s Trigger.  By the time, MINO’s song Trigger ends, Yamina is feeling her zone and she is calm, relaxed, and in the flow, her voice completely warmed up. Just as she shut off her iPhone Jasmine enters their dressing room.

            Jasmine’s face is slightly marred by a slight frown.

            “Hey, you were gone for a while. Is everything ok?”

            “Yea…it’s just…Charya. Ugh! Remind me why I put up with him,” Jasmine asked as she flopped onto the sofa that sat against one wall.

            “If I remember correctly, you said his was the main reason” Yamina snickered as she looked at Jazz through the mirror.

            “Well, is overrated. I am so sick of him trying to act like I’m his wife or something.”

            “Well, you shouldn’t lay that on him like that. Since that first night, he has been sniffing around you like a lovesick puppy.” Yamina turned in her chair as she faces Jasmine

            “I knew it was a mistake to sleep with him. But I was lonely, and he was convenient. And for all of ten minutes …”

            “You know, it is okay to be in a relationship, ya know, You have a line of men that would give a body part to be with you. Charya, my brother….Lei…”

            At the mention of Lei’s name, Jasmine turned away and slide down on the sofa.

            “I am aware. But no, relationships are overrated.”

            “If it makes you feel any better, I am a little jealous. No man has sniffed behind me like Charya do you or looks at me like a full course meal like Lei and my idiot brother do to you.”

            Jasmine laughed, “Yes right. This is coming from a woman who caused a seven-car pile-up that made the news three weeks ago from just crossing the street.

            Yamina laughed with her – she had her there. But Yamina was serious, though. If only her boyfriend Jerome looked at her with 1% of the passion that Charya or even Lei for that matter she would be a thankful woman. But even if she had that Yamina had to overcome whatever fear erupted in her body whenever a male paid her too much individual attention.

But everyone couldn’t have everything. God had to even the playing field somehow and Yamina’s past traumas were her’s to carry.

            A knock came on the door, and Jasmine and Yamina called for whoever it was to come in. It was the club’s stage manager/DJ. His name was Roero but his DJ name was DJ Epiphany.  Yeh, like the name of that BTS song. Jasmine had asked him about his name, and he swore he didn’t get it from the BTS song, but Jasmine had her doubts.

            “Five minutes. I need you, ladies, at the stage. We start in five minutes” DJ Epiphany said as he stood in the open doorway and just as quickly vacated it to get to his place at the DJ booth so he could announce Jasmine as she was opening up the set.

            “I guess everyone else is in place. Are we ready?” Jasmine asks.

            “As ready as I will ever be. Let’s do this”