USKY // Interview

An anti-pistonné, with a determination commensurate with his ambitions, Usky is without a doubt an artist that needs to be looked at more closely if not already being done.

Of his real name, Marwen is from the 12th arrondissement of Paris, and it can be said that he's up for a little danger. The one who has devoted his life to his music and to the conception of his projects, he's not afraid to say things with honesty and sincerity. He indulges for A Rap & A Cup Of Tea to tell us about the real reason behind Porte Dorée his latest mixtape and the contradictions that make him the person he is. He told us everything about the relentless drive that pushes him every day to give the best of himself in all the projects that he undertakes.

At only 28 years old, Usky makes music with guts, and it's felt as much in his songs as in his words. The artist who's not afraid to show a hidden side of the Rap game, entrusts to us today all the perseverance and wisdom that he has.

Can you tell me more about your career?

My career path is mostly a lot of work and stubbornness. It’s the fact of not giving up, and working continuously. I'm always in the studio, working on songs, concepts, thinking about future projects etc. All this is continuous. I’m always thinking about the next step.

I saw you say that at one point you wondered a lot about your future in music. What made you tip the scales, and decide to make music your core focus and not give up?

Honestly, what really allowed me to make that decision was the day I signed my first deal at Warner, and got my first pay. Seeing that I was paid to do what I like made me realize there’s a concrete side to music. It changed everything in the sense that I really had a chance to show who I was and to explore my musical universe.

Coming back to the mixtape Porte Dorée that you just released in February, the song 'Paris C'est Gotham' is a true banger that balances with all the other songs on the rest of the mixtape. How did you get the idea?

The song was not even supposed to be on the project. (laughs) Actually, I listened to this prod, and I got a kick out by it because I got a lot of inspiration from it. At the beginning, I just wanted to post a first verse on Instagram for my fans to enjoy, and to see their reaction. But in the end, I made my people listen to this song and they were all saying: "Dude, you absolutely have to put that song on your mixtape because it’s a fucking banger!". In the end, they were right because it's the most streamed song of Porte Dorée: Saison 3, so it’s crazy.

I saw in your interview ‘Don’t Touch My Tattoo’ with GQ that you were of Tunisian, Lebanese and French origin. Is this cultural mix that you are lucky to have inherited, something that you have always wanted to show off in your songs?

I’ll admit it’s something I never thought of putting forward to be honest. When you are immersed in this cultural mix, it’s normal for you and you don't tell yourself "I should talk about it.” Besides, I’ve never been into the delusion of being a spokesman for a community or that sort of thing. I'm more in the creation of a concept; the development of an idea, etc. It’s like with Porte Dorée, a lot of media and people have simplified the fact that my project was named like that because I came from that neighbourhood in Paris. In truth, I did it mainly to designated Saori, the goddess of war, from the Japanese manga and the real Golden Gate. There’s always a much deeper meaning to everything I do.

In this interview you also say that you consider yourself as a kind of physicist; you made music your science, and you test lots of things. You also express it in the song 'Addiction' where you say: "I’m not a rapper, I’m a physicist." Can you tell me more about all this?

I consider myself a music physicist in the sense that I have made music my science. Like you said, I’m experimenting with a lot of things and testing new formulas. If you take the example of a scientist with a white coat rather isolated from others, that’s exactly what I am. I do my experiments in the studio with a little bit of auto-tune "here and there", I do tests on new projects, just like a real physicist in his lab. I found the comparison quite interesting in the sense that I don’t consider myself a rapper at the moment. Yes, I do rap, but I don’t just do that. I try to propose a kind of Rap that is much more complex. I feel rather ‘apart’ in some ways, even if songs like ‘Talons’ and ‘Fer’ are more mainstream. It's in my approach; my positioning, and my way of mixing styles and universes with several facets that I find myself different. For example, sometimes I will mix the types of languages, and I will pass from a language that is supported to a language that is not supported at all. I'm full of contradiction. I am a science of my own because I'm the anchor of many different universes and therefore to create my music I just have to pick up the stuff inside me that compose myself.

I am a science of my own because I'm the anchor of many different universes. To create my music I just have to pick up the stuff inside me that compose myself.

Speaking of contradiction, there's one very emblematic thing about you: the fact that you are elusive. If we take the time to listen to your songs, we see that you sometimes put your ideas in contradiction as you just said...

It’s something I’m aware of, it’s true, and I take it. But what people need to understand is that when you work on an album, you go through several phases. And the creative phase in which you are at the beginning is not necessarily the same at the end. I'm a very bipolar person, I have ups, downs, etc. Sometimes I wake up in the morning, and I feel like I’m not the same as the day before. I don’t know if it’s physical, chemical, or psychological... I could'n't explain it. But these contradictions, I don't hide myself from them, and I show them deliberately on the album, because they are part of the person I am. Every human being is made of contradiction, and contradiction is precisely what has marked my life for a long time. One day I’m going to want to go to work in an NGO, and the next day, I’m going to want to shoot an incredible video, you know what I mean? (laughs) I’ve always been like this, and the world we live in is also contradictory.

It reminds me of your Views TV interview, where you say something very strong about the fact that you hope one day to be passionate about something else by saying "Music is just a passage." You also say it in 'Douce Folie': "My worst nightmare would be to be a rapper at 40, and not understand that life is a cycle that the wise hear." I found it striking.

Actually, it’s a real question that I ask myself: “Am I only good at that?” I know with certainty that I love what I do and all that, but there's a hope in me that doesn't want to die: I hope I'll have other passions. That doesn’t mean I won’t be in music later on, but maybe I don’t want to be at the front of the stage anymore. There’s something very selfish about being an artist. I met a lot of artists, especially in the world of Rap, and I realized that we're all selfish; me first. I wish I could get out of this, be more in the shadows and put other artists forward myself. In truth, I would feel bad to be a 40-year-old rapper who is frustrated because it doesn't work as he expected, and who always raps on the same themes. It’s a form of anxiety for me. I don’t feel like rapping to get stupid.

Are you looking forward to this second life or would you like to delay this step as much as possible?

The goal is to delay it as much as possible. (laughs) To be honest, I don’t really think that I'll be the one who decide it. You know, I work on projects and if there are people who want to invest in me, it’s cool, we make a deal, and we can come up with something great. The day when no one wants to invest anymore, and they stop believing in me, then life will tell me that I have to stop. This is the beginning of my career and I still have many projects to come out, and I haven’t gone through with them yet. Loads of people don’t know who Usky is. As I always say, “I will stop rapping the day everyone knows who I am, but nobody listens to my album”.

We used to say that when you’re an artist, you’re never really satisfied and you always want more. You also say that if you have nothing more to say you'll stop everything. Are you afraid of that? To realize that you have nothing more to deliver as a message?

Yes and no. I think music is some kind of therapy and if tomorrow you have nothing more to say, it means that you have emptied your bag, and in itself, it’s a good thing. If tomorrow I have nothing more to say, it's probably because I will be cured.

You think it’s really possible that you said it all?

It depends on what you say. To write, you have to have lived things; to spit them out on paper. All you’re saying is a rewrite of what you’re going through. The thing is that, for 3-4 years, I’ve been in my bubble, focused on my music, and in the end, I don’t live a lot of things. Maybe sometimes you have to take breaks too; to live new things and then to have material to continue writing. Not everything is black and white. Maybe tomorrow I’m going to take a break, and in 2-3 years I’m going to experience something incredible, and I’m going to say "Wow, I have to put it into music!" you see what I mean?

All you’re saying is a rewrite of what you’re going through.

There’s a lot of featuring on Porte Dorée: Saison 3, can you tell me more about them?

Level feat, I really wanted to open up and relive moments in studio with other artists. We contacted each others through Instagram, you know. (laughs) There's no incredible story behind these featurings, like: “We met in Bali and we decided to go back to Paris to make an incredible song.” I prefer to be honest (laughs). I contacted artists that I loved, and with whom I thought that our two musical worlds could marry, as with Jok'Air, Doxx, Monsieur Nov and the others.

All these exchanges with your community via social networks, do you think that it also allows you to overcome the loneliness in which you can be immersed as an artist? You mention it on the song 'Silence' where you say "I have tens of thousands of followers yet I feel so alone"?

Yes, in a way. It also depends on how you live things. We must not forget that social networks make you overcome a false loneliness. It’s not because you’re active on Instagram that you’ll feel less lonely; it’s a trap. Once your Insta live ends, you stay alone. I see networks more as a loophole and a barometer. It allows you to see if people enjoyed a song, or how they reacted for example. Above all, networks represent my only means of promotion; I'm not played on radio or television, except on a few channels. I’m also not necessarily very publicized either, so social networks are essentials.

There’s a very benevolent side to you; you often give strength to people. For example, in several interviews, I’ve seen you saying things like "Don’t worry about people’s opinion / You have to live to the fullest" etc. Is it important for you to convey a message of hope like this?

Actually with Porte Dorée: Saison 2, I had lost that feeling of hope, I was in a very dark mood. And I wanted to get out of that phase. Basically, I want to give hope to those who come from the scratch. My message is mostly to show that you can succeed without contact, or a brother working in a record company, if you know what I mean. I represent anti-pistonner. Usky is the music of resourcefulness; the hustler. I don’t necessarily say it explicitly in my songs, and I wish I could talk more about it on the album, so that people really understand it.

What’s your next goal?

Release an album; a real one. (laughs) Not in the form of mixtape or trilogy as I did with Porte Dorée. The real goal is to become a better version of myself.

Instagram: @UskyVision

Words © Fanny Hill Scott

Photography 1,3 © Baeby Mama