Who is Sopico, the most rock rapper in the capital?

If rock has now been largely overtaken by rap in the top sales of albums and singles since the advent of streaming platforms,  this musical genre is not dead. And even if it is no longer at the top of the playlists, some rappers are inspired by it for their musical projects. This is the case of Sopico, a rapper from the 18th arrondissement of Paris, who even claims to do “racking, a hybrid genre between rock and rap”. However, the twenty-five-year-old artist has made a name for himself with a softer and more sensitive musicality, composed of poetic texts and intoxicating melodies. While we meet him in his recording studio in the heart of Paris, the artist is rehearsing with his band, still accompanied by his guitar,  in the run-up to his concert at La Cigale. First of all, he looks more like a rocker than a rapper…

 

From his childhood, the young Sofiane, alias Sopico, was immersed in music and quickly fell in love with both rock and rap. “One of my first CDs was the album Time out from Booba, which I bought when I was eleven. It was this record that made me love rap. At the same time, I also listened to a lot of rock bands like System of a Down, Linkin Park, Metallica and Nirvana.”. Two different musical genres and yet so close, that the young man has been able to tame over the years, starting first by playing the guitar at the age of twelve, with the aim of recreating the riffs of his favorite guitarists. Until then, Sopico played this instrument for his hobby and continued to listen to rap, without imagining for a second that he would make it his profession. 

It was only after a scooter accident that immobilized him for several weeks that he began to write songs. “I’ve always had a lot of rappers in my entourage, including Hugo TSR and Georgio who were my neighbors. One evening, some friends, also in rap, offered me to write a text, which I did. They liked it, so I just kept going.Little by little, Sopico found himself in the studio, writing freestyles, participating in open-mics, and above all meeting the collective and label 75e session, with whom he would later evolve. Everything then followed one another for the young artist, who made his first stages, and released his first projects: first Mojo in 2016, then Episode 1 in 2017, and Yë in 2018.

 

In the meantime, Sopico became the first French artist to be selected by the famous Berlin platform Colors, with the track Le Hasard ou la Chance that he performed with his guitar in an acclaimed video, which made him known to the general public. Despite the success, the rapper decided to take a break. Two years later, after having “enjoyed , traveled and above all built a solid framework”, Sopico returned to the forefront of the scene with the label Spookland Records, managed by the singer-songwriter Yodelice, whom he met during this long period. “During this break, I did about fifty songs. My computer was like a laboratory, and my songs like experiments.” In April 2020, the rapper made his comeback with yet another EP, Episode 0, which he released during the lockdown.

This is followed by another very different project, since the public also was able to discover him on the poster of the Netflix series The Eddy — for which he also composed part of the soundtrack — produced by Damien Chazelle (Whiplash, La La Land, First Man), alongside star couple Tahar Rahim and Leila Bekhti. A first role as an actor in a supporting role, not so surprising for Sopico: “I’ve always been a big cinephile. This shoot was incredible and I would love to do it again. Even a horror film, a thriller or a stunt film, I accept directly. I like the preparation and the testing.” A taste for risk and a reckless spirit that the rapper also wanted to prove through his music with the release of his very first album, Clouds this Friday, October 15.

 

A way for him to go back to his roots, and to honor what he really loves: the melodies, the feelings, and especially his guitar. For this record, composed of ten tracks without any featuring (except for his instrument), Sopico then returned to his first two loves: rock and rap, in other words the “rack”, as he likes to say. “This first album was really born around a dialogue between me and my guitar. I’ve always had this part of me that wanted to rock, jump around and move my head like crazy on stage. Today, I want to make a rock that has a lot of love for rap.” A desire that he affirmed with the first excerpt of the project Slide, which he unveiled on September 3 with a most spectacular video, where he abseiled down a one hundred and twenty-nine meter high skyscraper, guitar in hand. A visual that confirms his love of risk and truly distinguishes him as the most rock rapper in the capital.

 

Clouds (2021) by Sopico, available.