Since he killed his alter ego Johnny for good, a look back at the highlights of Sadek’s great career in French rap.
It only took one photo for the entire rap world to be taken with it. On December 14, 2022, a picture of Sadek surfaced online. He appears with a blank stare, a full beard and hair all on fire… In short, with an unfamiliar appearance that gives no indication of his physical and mental health. The concern for him is even more legitimate since he has not given any sign of life for almost a year. In other words, everything suggests that after a long descent into hell, the rapper is at the bottom of the hole and done with music…
Except no! As you might expect, this was all just a joke, a staged performance to prepare for his musical comeback to the fore. And what a comeback since the release of his new music video Sicilianhe revealed Sadek killed me, a clever self-interview concept during which he offered himself one last face-to-face with his alter ego Johnny Niuum. One last pass of the weapons before finally reducing him to silence.
Killing what kept him in the game for more than ten years, Sadek brilliantly opened a new chapter in his artistic career. This album, Change of ownership, is the breaking point of a music career with action movie beats. While we wait for it to eventually be brought to the big screen or adapted into a series, let’s go over Sadek’s rapological legend through the narrative outline of his career.
Exhibition scene: once upon a time Sadek…
Want proof that Sadek’s career is a movie? Only the first years of his life are worthy of the greatest Hollywood films. If he grew up in the town of Cahouettes in Neuilly-Plaisance, it all begins in Aubervilliers, it is in this town of Seine-Saint-Denis that his father, a Tunisian mechanic who came to settle in France, worked hard for open his. garage.
Ask Rémy, Auber, everyone intersects and mingles, regardless of ethnicity, social class or religious affiliation. It is thanks to this cosmopolitan environment that young Sadok Bourguiba will assimilate the values of sharing, openness and tolerance. In short, everything started well for him when suddenly…
The reason: his rap debut
When he is only 11 years old, our protagonist is the victim of a terrible accident. Knocked down by a vehicle while skating, he was bedridden for twelve months with an open tibia fracture, broken arms and legs. This dramatic event that he narrates especially in his work “Mektoub” will be the trigger and cultivate his determination for his entire existence. During his recovery, he will scratch out his first lyrics and cultivate a keen sense of the verb. Nothing could be more normal for a child fed Tunisian poetry and parts of IAM.
Once he gets back on his feet, he’ll go through battles and open mic sessions in Paris, but more. Indeed, he has the edge to challenge the competition straight down the street, a bit like Eminem in 8 Mile. According to the verbal contests won, he will create an extraordinary Parisian titi personality that shines with his humor and eloquence. Hungry and looking for new challenges, our already well-seasoned MC will find himself at Quai 54, the biggest street-ball tournament in the world. There he will meet Hammadoun Sidibé, the most American of the French, and immediately ask him to manage him. We are in 2007 and from there Sadek’s whole life will change. He doesn’t know it yet, but it opened the doors to a more than ten year career in the rap game. The rest is part of history.
First adventure: the Johnny Niuum era
As he likes to play with fiction, the 93’s rapper will soon be looking to forge an artistic alter ego. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Johnny Niuum, a character Sadek would describe as “ instinctive “, without omissions and raw molds. The formula works, but it’s not enough for him to get the gold record he so desperately wants. The bottom line is there, good old Johnny is too painful and too streetwise for the general public. If he wants to get his first certification, he will have to go in a different direction.
Then he goes down with On the edge of reality, a project that is less like that. From there, Sadek made the bold decision to never again go against his artistic choices, even if it meant not pleasing the masses. Realize it’s time for Johnny to bring his sidekick back from the dead and even make a mixtape Johnny Niuum never dies. Boom! He hits the bullseye and will hit the jackpot next year by staging the first major heist of his career. His next opus, Kill the casinocarried by celibacy Andalusia finally gold will be certified, equal to 50,000 sales.
With this first certification in hand, Johnny Niuum is on the verge of glory. His new ambitions are clear and the cover of his upcoming album, Vulgar, violent and happy to be there, testifies to this: in addition to making the boys of the neighborhood vibrate, he also asks to talk to the lady of the house, even grandmother. To do this, he will give a festive atmosphere to his songs with difficult topics such as the reality of the street or mental health. Madre Mia is the perfect example. This catchy title, which will be played both at weddings and in clubs, is even today the biggest success of Sadek’s career. A real jackpot. So much so that his new position as a popular figure in French culture will open the doors of the Seventh Art.
The second adventure: dedication to the cinema
Like Fianso or Nekfeu, Sadek also shone in the great family of the 7th art. He owes his salute not to the Cours Florent, but to a certain Clément Dumoulin, known as Clément ” animals “. It is he who speaks to him about one film project that would be fun “. This project is Tour de France by Rachid Djaidani. On the recommendation of his friend, he tries out for the cast and two weeks later receives a call from the director. The latter then told him to prepare to shoot with none other than the monster of French cinema, Gérard Depardieu. Of course, the 25-year-old Nocéens in 2016 initially believes in a joke, the one who still has no experience in front of the camera. Only the reality is there: he will be Far’Hook, a young rapper in his twenties forced to leave Paris for ” go green after a settlement of accounts. Sadek’s life is a movie that we show you!
After which, he will chain productions in darkrooms and on television: the black river by Erick Zonca (2017), Office of Legends by Eric Rochant (2018), Christmas flow by Nadège Loiseau (2021) and of course By the way by Julien Royal in the same year. On the strength of these experiences, he even manages to work on the production of his own films. Projects delayed by Covid, but that don’t have to last now. The fact remains that if the cinema made him climb one more step towards the top of his ambitions, it was also him that did not stop him. As far as attempted experimental type madness Johnny De Janeiro.
Third adventure: Johnny de Janeiro in Brazil
Sake has always said: for him, rap is circus. A meticulous but light art while others take themselves too seriously. Even if it means laughing and making his audience laugh, he decides to play the card of spontaneity and self-mockery to the maximum. That’s how Johnny Niuum came to be Johnny De Janeiro. For the duration of an album, he abandoned the cold of the street to take a vacation under the Brazilian sun.
As unbelievable as it may seem, Sadek has just dropped us a Brazilian funk project. And even if this seems like a big joke since he likes to take the nursery rhyme three little cats IN Somnambulist and try the Tetris theme on Tetris, the approach could not be more serious. With no offense to rap listeners who were destabilized by this proposition, Sadek provided himself with an original musical parenthesis to assert his mantra more than ever: “I do what I want to do, that’s all.” And whatever may be said, Johnny de Janeiro remains to this day the best-selling Brazilian funk (baile funk) album in France.
The fourth adventure: a violent response
If until now, honestly, everything has been successful in Sadek, there comes in all films worthy of this name, a moment when everything does not go according to plan. On February 11, 2020, around 04:00, he participated with three other people in the attack on Bassem Braïki, after the latter severely insulted his companion. The fight comes days after the cancellation of a showcase by the artist that the videographer had called for. After a public mea culpa, he was arrested the next day as he prepared to surrender to the authorities. Charged and placed in custody, he will be released a month and a half later and will be placed under judicial supervision. Since then, he obviously becomes aware of the seriousness of his actions, but the damage is done.
Result: Let us love one another alive
A year later, in 2021, the water has flowed under the bridge, but instead of embracing the path of appeasement, Sadek is once again going on a crusade against Dubai influencers and other reality TV contenders this time. His commitment to the front is such that during this period these numerous clashes become headlines on the networks. However, he will quickly rectify the situation with a new album that places him in the sign of love and reconciliation: do we want alive.
If this album had to be summed up in one sentence by the rapper, it would be “ To love others better, learn to love yourself first and be at peace with yourself.. To help him in his personal quest for redemption, Sadek was able to count on significant support through prestigious collaborations, including Heuss L’enfoiré, Kalash Criminel, Lacrim, Likmus, Leto, Ninho, SCH, Fianso, DA Uzi or Vald again. An album which the rapper will not hesitate to describe as such “The best album of his career”.
Resolution: Sadek 1 – Johnny 0
After many projects, Sadek gives us a meeting with him Change of ownership. An opus with a perfect name, as if Johnny Niuum had left the keys to a young rapper, a Sadek with many experiences of all kinds, between musical successes, sound experiments and good introspection.
Sadek, without a doubt a rapper that we don’t have a hard time qualifying as an artist above all, since the guy knows how to pull out games from his sleeves that are both disturbing and winning. Like after a winning poker game at the end of a dark casino, the boy seems ready to embrace a different kind of light, one that shines a bright light on a career. A career to listen to like watching a movie because if rap has become one The sport of the richSadek remains one of its most talented screenwriters.