React
By Vincenzo Chiolo
Samuel Ryan Lauric alias Hunter, 18, is ready to do great things in the world of French -speaking rap.True self -taught, the young Anderlechtois, living today in Genval in Walloon Brabant, has everything to be talked about.Fan of Japanese manga, he plans to settle on the urban scene with his group, the Nekketsu Klan.After signing in a record company at Warner/Elektra, a first door opens up to him.He released his first EP this Friday, entitled "Club 111".From his revelation on the Instagram account "1min2rap" to the realization of his project with Dany Synthé, we discussed with this future phenomenon made in Belgium.
InstagramWhat is the origin of your name Hunter?
It's simple, it comes from the manga/anime "Hunter x Hunter" that I liked too much!This is also how my friends called me.It was the first Blase who stayed and then, when it was necessary to find a rapper name, it was this one that I kept.
Where does this fascination for manga come from?
It’s since I’ve been little.My best friend showed me "Dragon Ball Z", I think like all manga fans we started there, and then I fell in.
An element challenged me in your bio.We can read there that "in nekketsus, a category of Japanese manga widespread in pop culture, a lonely hero goes to accomplish a quest by defending his most expensive values".What is your quest and what are your values?
Me, on Instagram, it is "Hunter du Nekketsu", because my group of friends with whom I recruit and who is called the nekketsu Klan, we were all fans of manga of phew phew.When we looked at the meaning of the nekketsu, I found that we could seriously highlight it with my journey.Around 11, 12 years old, I started to rap with my best friend, we wrote our first texts, but I was in something very "oldschool", I wanted to rap with very old -fashioned stuff.It was around 2014, 2015, the trap had just arrived with Niska, Xvbarbar, all that.But I was fully in my thing with 1995, and suddenly it was just up to young people, I did not listen to the same music, suddenly, in my world, I was already a lonely hero, we gosay.Finally, I come from a small neighborhood called Genval, in Walloon Brabant, so it's not a big city, while at the base I was born and I grew up in Anderlecht.I moved, and here it is quickly limited in terms of rapper and I found myself that my friends tell me, when we were at the home of young people where we had a studio, "If you want to comeRapper with us, come ".I came and there was only trap, I did not end up and I was confronted with either you do trap, or you will rap alone.Suddenly I opened myself, I did trap, and it was there that "my first enemies", that was the trap, became my allies and I was able, with my friends, to make "OpenMic ”, freestyles on Insta, in short friends with whom I did lots of things.This is where I would put in parallel this thing of the nekketsu and the lonely hero who by dint of trials, his first enemies become his friends.
Are you talking about the 1995 group, what were your other inspirations in rap?
I really started rap when I was very small, scouts.I had been made listening to Orelsan, and it was really not a good idea to make it listen to that to a kid of 10, 11 years (laughs).After there was the assault sexion.One of my classics when I was little it was "the School of Vital Points".The album he was running in the car with the daons, Orelsan a little less, they don't like too much.After, 1995, but when I was little, I did not make the difference, I listened to the group as one person, I had not necessarily paid attention to Nekfeu, for example.I also listened to a little rap "Cainri" but quickly.I have never been a fan of this rap, but I remember that my cousin had made me listen to "sweat" by Snoop Dogg, and it had made me phew.
It shows in your songs that you have other inspirations for your music ...
I listened to a lot of music in the car with my mother: Calogero, Cabrel, Patrick Bruel, Dalida, Rihanna, Beyonce, lots of things.Not too much rock.For example, I loved the Beatles, Queens, but these are artists that I went to seek by myself afterwards.When I was little, it was really French variety.
You made music theory where you learned the guitar.Was it a personal desire or your parents pushed you?
It was my desire to make music from little.The first song I sang was "Monday Tuesday let me dance", Dalida's song!It was the theme of "Star Ac 1" and my parents looked at it.Since I discovered this, I want to sing in front of people to live it.It's really this I wanted to do: make music at all costs.My damons found me the academy which was not far from home after the move, and on the other hand ... I hated!It was too school, I did not have easy in school, I was not a concentrated student.It was not liked the music theory suddenly, but after, with hindsight, I tell myself that I might have had to continue because today it could have served me.In the end, even now I do things at the feeling.You can see on Instagram that I make short videos where I am on the piano and well, these are things that I learned on YouTube.In real life, I can't read a note.For me, that's also music.When I write, I like it to be academic, mathematical, that everything rhymes well, but when it is music, notes, I don't mind that there is a false note if it isTo transmit an emotion.And that's what bored me with music theory and guitar.I wanted to play the rocker (laughs)!
What does "1min2rap" represent for you?
A big springboard!If I am doing an interview with you, which I was able to sign in a record company ... A large part of my current career is built on the Instagram page "1min2rap".I have a big strength for Milyann - the founder of the account, we still talk about it quite regularly, I sent him the project in advance.It's a bit crazy in fact: a video that I made in my hotel room that brings me 3.000 subscribers, it puts you fuel.After you left for a tour!
Why did you swing this freestyle live from New York on social networks?
In fact, what you need to know and that is hyperimpling is that people are often raging on "1min2rap" because they are not re -elapsed.Me, the first time I made a video for "1min2rap" was 4.5 months before the one in my hotel room.I too had not been repeated.And I too had raged (laughs)!In fact, there are so many videos that guy, he cannot see everything.I think it's also a little lucky.What really pushed me to do is a friend of me who is called neo, my best childhood friend with whom I started to rap.He was "determined", he knew the page when she was not yet certified, nothing to do with the current magnitude.Today, they have 1.000.000 subscribers, that's anything!At the time, Neo did it and he was not re -eosted.And he was the strongest in the group and I said to myself "if he does not happen, I will not try to do it".In addition me, when I made my video, it was on my personala, so I was hot, lots of people did not know that I was reporting.At first, I didn't want to post it.Then I did it, I was not repeated, it put me a blow.In the end, when I was on vacation in New York, I listened to the new PNL album, "Two brothers", and listening to the instrument of "Misery is so beautiful", I have a text thatto come.I looked for the instrument on Youtube, I woke up my little brother and we did it like that.It took a sudden, not a phew thing, but enough for me to say to myself "well, I'm going to do it again".It made the page it has grown, when I released sounds in stream, people they were listening to them, and that's it!
You sign at 17 at Elektra, when you are at Christ-Ro's college.How is your schooling, linked to your rapper career?
I was not at all a very good student.I was not the worst, I had succeeded all my years until then, because, in real life, I dared not put myself fully in rap.It was not yet serious enough.Then I had this thing on Insta where it starts to walk a little.Not enough to live and stop the lessons, but there is also the factor where I had just had my license to drive in a car without a license, the famous Aixam.I tasted freedom.All that made that after, school was screwed up, especially since I missed my year, and it put me on a blow because I should not miss it.But as I was a fairly disturbing student, I was in a fairly strict college, they did not hesitate to put me in it.Finally, I signed.I made the decision to stop the lessons, but not to have my diploma.I'm going to go through a free candidate, because it's still important.I'm quite self-taught, so I know I can do it by myself.This thing to get up every day to go to class no longer pleased me at all.I really had trouble with that.
What did you want to do in life, apart from rap?
In reality, it has always been rap.I always wanted to make rap, but I think I was too afraid to get really 200 %.One day I got started, and still now, that's it or nothing.Me, I really like reading, if it didn't work in music, I would surely have done a literary thing.I might have written books!In any case, it would have been something related to words.
When did you see that there was a click?
I consider that for the moment, it has not really farted.I do not think I have pierced because I am still a thousand leagues from my goals.I think it's a time when I said to myself "that's what I want to do, I'm going to do it thoroughly".I am ready to dedicate myself to 200 % on this, even if it means to stop school.By stopping the lessons and being a little freer for my passion, I put myself a little more pressure on my studies because it means that I am alone to have to teach myself things and to have to study my lessons without goingin class.I wanted to do it, to be free and to prove to myself that I knew how to do things myself.So yes, for the moment, I would tell you that I have not yet had a click where I tell myself that it has farted because I have really not broken yet, I am far away.When I signed, I said to myself "I am ready to put a first step in the big leagues, in the game, and to try to build a big career".I think that's the most important.
You talk a lot about your education and your parents in your songs.What was their reaction when you told them that you were going to stop school to dedicate yourself to your passion?
My father is very involved in my music, it is my "agent".He's the one who will look at my contracts.In addition, I was minors when I signed so my parents had to be there, with me, and had to sign too.I am fortunate to be also surrounded by my best friend and manager Dany.At first, for my mother, it was not easy.She is a doctor, has done a lot of studies, and for her, it's super-importing.When I told her that I wanted to devote myself to it, she may not have confidence, she told me that going through my diploma in free candidacy it was going to be hot.But in the end, when we signed, she said to herself that she did not leave me on the street either, without anything.There is still a program that is set up.We are here to do real things and in the end, I will have this diploma!I would say it in the next EP when I have it, but I had my mother's tears dry and I would still dry them, I hope.
Let's talk about the EP.Why did you call it "Club 111"?
It's a good question !Already, I find that the name is cool (laughs), but behind there is a real reflection.I told you about my group, the Nekketsu Klan, with whom I started to rap and who was a group of friends at the base.This group of friends, with Dany my manager, other friends who do not rap, but who are always there to help me.For these people, I wanted to find a name to represent them because it was with them too that I did a major part of my EP.They accompanied me in the studio, filmed videos for Insta, etc..Also, I wanted to integrate my audience into this club.This is my first project and I wanted to integrate the public from the start, the real fans who have been there since now, the "club 111".I wanted to integrate them into this group and say: "They too, they are part of the" club 111 "".This is why I like to say that "the" club 111 "will open its doors the day the EP is coming out".He can welcome all the supporters and all the people who are there to be part of this story, which is my career.For the etymology of the name, "club", in card games, it represents in English the clover.With us the clover is assimilated to luck."111", it is because all the numbers that are three repetitions are supposed to have a certain meaning, and the "111" represents the departure, the first step.Suddenly, the clover and the first step is a little chance of departure, as it is the first EP.That is also to say: "We take this chance and we go".
The EP is made up of 8 titles, 3 of which had already been released before.Is it a business card or just sounds that you wanted to share with your community?
It's a bit of both!So much songs like "draws" and "helicopter" are sounds that I already had before signing.I knew they were big cartridges that I liked.I said to myself "it's time to swing them" because I wanted people to listen to them.As for the rest, it is indeed enough business card.These are the songs that were worked after my signature until October/November.I find that there is also a certain consistency in the EP which is due to the fact that I worked with Dany Synthé.He was able to go back to all the prods of the project and also give this musical coherence and not only textual.This is a good first business card, I gave everything I had, all my weapons.There are still a lot of things that will happen and I hope people will love.
Schools, parents, friends, money ... You talk about many subjects in your songs, but above all love.What happened in your life, at 18, so that you are talking about it as much?
These are personal experiences.I think that as young people we all had in love with, all had girls in our class to whom we have never dared to talk.And that is what I write on paper, that's what I dare not say loud, or in any case what I dare not say in person.And if not, for the most part it talks about experience.As you say, I'm still young, I haven't had a lot of experiences yet, but enough to talk about it (laughs)!And especially enough that to make some songs on an EP.
Are there any subjects that you have not yet discussed and want to approach in your next projects?
Yes, there are quite a few.There are many of which I do not yet feel mature enough in my writing or in my gaze to talk about it.I am thinking in particular of racism, which is a subject that I would like to talk about, make a song.The family, more than saying that I disappointed mom, that I love her, etc.There is also the father, the little brothers, all that.The difficulties that can be experienced as a family.I still live with my parents, I have not yet returned to the adult world to have a real look at society.All this will come over time, and I would have time to express it through other project.
Do you also have as many subjects as musical genres ... In what kind do you feel best, you who started with freestyle?
It's a good question !I think the most blatant difference between a freestyle and a real piece is that, as its name suggests, a freestyle is quite free.A blow I want to rap, a blow I want to swing a melo.Afterwards, when you make a real song, like "Draw", at the base, it is a freestyle that I put in song by structuring it.That is to say intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-outro.The listener he knows what he listens, he is not stupid.He knows what a refrain or a verse is.This notion, it is a little more vague when it is a freestyle, you can rap when the instrument is supposed to be the chorus, and you can sing when it is the verse.These notions are a little more blurred in freestyle, but they do good!Sometimes you have a prod and you just want to rap and say everything you have to say and show everything you can do and that's what's cool.You take your GSM and you swing everything you have.It is this raw side of the freestyle that I like.It's no longer a release.I still feel more comfortable when I write songs because thank God I don't want to let off steam every day (laughs).I try to be more and more posed and I think that the song it brings a lot to reflection, that is to say that in my EP, each song has a theme.Even if several subjects can intermingle, there is still a general theme that emerges, and that's what makes it a song and not a freestyle.Which is harder to do when you make a song, for example with "Lady", which is one of the strong titles of the EP, at the base I wrote it with Némir.Then we had to change the thing, do it again with Dany Synthé, etc..When you have a freestyle, it does not go in as many forms and processes.It's raw, direct, it's posed, it's there, it is enough for an iPhone.
You were talking about Intru: Do you have a text before choosing them or on the contrary will it inspire a text?
I never write without prod.It's something I rarely do.I had to do it only once, on "helicopter".It was that the refrain.I was at the airport, I write a lot when I travel, it inspires me a lot.Now it's complicated, but I'm lucky: I have a stock of 50 songs that I did before and during the lockdown.Suddenly, I have enough matter thank you for the second project, but there it will be hot!We will have to travel to recharge your batteries.But to return to "helicopter", I had written the chorus just in a vocal note, it had inspired me.Basically, he was not going so fast and then precisely, I was made to play a prod, which made me think of this air.In addition, I choose the prods less.In freestyle, I'm going to watch on YouTube or in my email, but now it's pretty tailor.I am lucky to work with beatmakers with whom I can hear myself well and with whom we can spend several days making music.We build from the start and we do everything together.This is what is most like.
Dany Synthé, which is an essential figure in French rap, produces your EP.How is the connection with him?
The connection with Dany Synthé Mec is a phew thing!I am a believer and this connection, it is one evening, we leave the studio.We were in Montreuil with my artistic director.We have to order a taxi, he took time to arrive.He cancels it and we order a second.There was also my engineer and a friend to me.The taxi driver asks us what we are doing at that time and we tell him that we make music.He replies: "Chanmé, can I listen?"»».We make him listen to and there he said to us: "Hey but you know, I know Dany Synthé.If you want I can put you in touch with him ”.It is 1/2 a.m., the driver he comes to pick us up and I am sure he myths a little!Then he said to me, "I'm serious!We follow each other on Insta and I would give you news ”.In doubt, I do it.I am, we speak, and the craziest, is that the next day, he sends me the number of Dany Synthé's uncle.A crazy story!I transfer him to my "DA" who chats with him and who sets an appointment three months in advance.We had to be in June, we met at the end of August.Finally, the fateful date arrives when I have to meet him.Basically, it was just a day when we had to make prods.To tell you, the day we arrived in front of the studio we didn't even know if it was going to be there!No one had contact with Dany Synthi so we didn't know if he was going to be there.Finally, it happened, on time, too nice, it was archicool.He arrived, he asked me "go, make me listen to what you do because I don't know you".Pressure!I make him listen to all the sounds, all the models, not the 50 songs I told you about, but the strongest.I think he liked it, he took a little slap, and he told us "damn, it's Chanmé, there is something to do.It just lacks a little consistency between the pieces ”.And that's what he brought with his Réal job.He proposed to carry out the project and that's it.It starts from a taxi driver!
Do you realize that you work with him?
Yes, phew!When I made him listen to the sounds, I trembled!I was hot, I was afraid (laughs).I worked with many other producers on the project, with whom we did the prods.We were able to refine everything with Dany Synthi even more, and that was really something cool.It’s like I’ve done lots of first drawings and then I was able to put everything in the clean.
How did you experience the confinement linked to the COVIVE health crisis?
Like everyone, I'm fed up!I have my slap, there it becomes too.But I admit that at the beginning, the first confinement, I lived it quite well.It was really a break in everyone's life.It's something unique, it never happened, everyone has put their life on a break.It was a phew thing!I remember that, while respecting the health measures put in place, we were going to cycle with friends because it was the only thing that we could do in fact.That, I lived it quite well, but I admit that now, I am the scene that makes me want, that makes me love the little that I could do with it.I want it, I think it's a little celebration.It is to meet people.I receive a lot of messages on Instagram from people who come from Lyon, Tour, Reunion, everywhere.It would be like to be able to meet them and be able to play the songs on stage with them.It grieves me a bit that we are not an opportunity to do so currently with this project.
You say you have about fifty songs in stock.What can we expect for the future?
Heavy !We can expect heavy.
And me, what can I wish you for the rest of your career?
Concerts, festivals, live!Good feedback on the songs too.That people listen to the project, it is the most important.We have worked on it, and with the whole team, we are super-converse of the result.We had galleys but in the end, the EP is good, it is there, and I can't wait for people to go and listen to it.
