Nomadic wax Camerouinian MC – Yannick
June 10, 2008
NOMADIC WAX SIGNS CAMEROUNIAN/FRENCH MC YANNICK
Yanigga (real name Yannick Feuze) was born May 20, 1983 in Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital. He spent his childhood in Bassa, a popular and infamous neighborhood located behind an industrial area. He grew up between the shanytowns and the jungle. Despite this hostile environment, he had an excellent running in school. As an intelligent and thoughtful student, he succeed an exam that allows him to enter college without going through the last class of primary school. (He took one year ahead of his peers). But living close to poverty is not easy. So at the age of 16 he left Africa to continue his studies in France. He arrived in Paris in 1999. He joined his older brother in an apartment located in one of the towers of “Place Des Fêtes”, a popular neighborhood located in the 19th district of Paris. Poverty turns into hard times and despite the bad reputation of the neighborhood, Yanigga thinks he found a better life…
The beginnings
Yanigga began writing rhymes when he was a teenager, to make himself feel better. It was his therapy. As a music passionate and Rap fan, he was influenced by Tupac Shakur who gave him desire to follow in his footsteps.
When he arrived in Paris, he became interested in composition and starts by using software such as Fruityloops and Reason. For his pseudonym, he created the name Yanigga which is a combination of his surname (Yannick) and “nigga” a Hip Hop slang word meaning negro. He wanted to create a music label. He starts by making sounds for a childhood friend who is seeking a career in music. But the latter resigns. Yanigga then decide to make an artistic career that would help him to create his label. He choses Rap music because it is the genre that fits him the best. In 2003 he produced his first song “PDF C’est Le Quartier” featuring another rapper of his neighborhood. The song has a great success and he gets local recognition. But with no funds nor structure to start his career he decided to take a break to get a diploma before getting back to it. Two years later he gets a degree in marketing. After graduating, he gets back to music thoroughly. Following a friend’s advice, he sign on MySpace. He gives his songs in his neighborhood and put them on his MySpace page. His popularity grow rapidly (More than 40 000 visits in 1 month!), And he gets a lot of good feedback. Therefore he decide to start the production of his first album.
Encounters
He is contacted by the young photographer Sarah Ford, who did his first photo shoots. He contact Svirl-Beatz (german beatmaker) Dub-A Beatz (swiss beatmaker) and Stewface (camerounian beatmaker), and they will all give him beats for his first album. His popularity reached the United States and he is contacted by Magee McIlvaine (american journalist and activist) from the label Nomadic Wax who is doing a series of documentaries on African Hip Hop. For the filming of “Democracy In Paris” he comes to Paris and does an interview of Yanigga in his neighborhood, one month before the release of his album.
The first album
With his dark voice and his nonchalant flow on smoked out and electrifying sounds, Yanigga quickly puts into orbit. Although he is a tortured soul, he is far from the caricature of the rapper with long fangs yelling on the microphone. He holds a sharp pen and takes us across a large universe in a few words. With his simple and realistic style, we wander through his African roots, his life as an artist, life in his neighborhood, and his aspirations. A wide and accessible universe, far away from the consumerism of our society. As its name suggests, “Dans Ma Peau”(In My Skin) is a self-portrait. Yanigga expresses two sides of his personality: The artist rapper and the African immigrant in Paris, which coexist in the daily struggle. Since he’s delivering the truth, we discover that the man is seeking himself artistically but also personally, to make his dreams come true. In full autoproduction, he wrote produced and mixed all the 18 tracks on his album. For nearly an hour he shares different emotions. Sometimes it’s the pressure on songs such as “Ambiance Ghetto”, disillusionment with “Au Coin De Ma Rue”, hope with “Faut Que Ca Brasse”, introspection with “Qui Suis-je ?”, claim with “Negrevolution”, and eroticism with” Comme Une Porno Star “. He addresses the issues of reality and talks about ambition, relating to the youth of every ghettos.
On the 28th of May 2007, he has released 1,000 copies.
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After receiving his 1000 copies, Yanigga went to the FNAC store (located in the city center) to meet with the man in charge of the Rap departement. After negotiations, he signed a contract for selling his album there and the week after, his album was on the shelves.
For his digital distribution, he signed a licensing deal with ALIEN PROD. His album is now available on the most popular digital retailers.
For his international distribution, he has entered into a partnership with CD Baby. His album is now physically available across Europe, America, Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East.
Promoting the album
- IN THE STREET:
For the promotion of his album Yanigga designed a poster and got it printed in 3000 copies by a Belgian printer. He pasted 2000 in his neighborhood and gave 1000 to people in the street, hands to hands.
- THE RADIO:
Yanigga was invited by Xiao Venom (host of the program “GLORY TIME”) aired on RADIO FPP.
- ON THE INTERNET:
Yanigga has created his official website and published it on www.yanigga.com. He also customized his MySpace page (www.myspace.com / yanigga) that he manages daily. He was thus able to communicate to more than 18 000 contacts and share his music with more than 17 000 fans (number of people who have added him to their favorites). With an average of 100 per day plays, he is the first unsigned Cameroonian artist on the MySpace charts.
An Internet portal dedicated to sharing African music (Africanflow FM), focuses on Yanigga and contacts him to do an interview and to promote his work on their pages.
Afrik.com (Internet portal devoted to the news of Black Africa and the Maghreb), is interested in Yanigga and contacts him to promote his work on their pages and broadcast his videos on their channel.
- VIDEOS:
In June 2007, Yanigga meets director Jean Hadjes and they decided to shoot his first video. They choose the song “Faut Que Ca Brasse” because that song is a message of hope. Yanigga speaks about the realities and aspirations shared by all the young people in his neighbourhood. With a very low budget and no shooting team, Yanigga and Jean Hadjes shoot the video on a weekend during August.
Yanigga puts the video on popular videos websites (MySpace.tv, DailyMotion and YouTube) and also on his official website (www.yanigga.com). The video gets a great success and exceeds the 1000 views in 2 days thanks to word of mouth only.
In December 2007, Yanigga reaches to Systaime (video artist, painter and graphic designer, creator of the movement French Trash Touch). He wants to do a video for the song “Negrevolution.” Together they agree to make a “visual hieroglyphics.” They mix a tribal and minimalist decor with images and video clips illustrating the lyrics of the song. Systaime uses his palette of special effects to beautify everything and the result is exceptional. Yanigga puts the video on popular videos websites and also on his official website. The opinions are unanimous : Yanigga is a true artist who commands respect.
- ON STAGE:
Yanigga meets his public in bars and small parisian venues. On stage he shares his music in a sincere and intense way, and many people qualify him as touching. His charisma his voice and his delivery create a cosy atmosphere that makes all his performances some captivating moments.
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