Behind its programmatic and belligerent title, the Fontenay-sous-Bois-based artist’s second album confirms her as one of the most inventive minds in French rap.
In the recent history of French rap—let’s call it the post-Covid era that gave rise to a multitude of alternatives for the genre—few artists can boast a career trajectory toward success as straight as La Fève.
Breathe new life into a French rap line that was headed straight for suffocation with the EP Kolaf and the ERRR tape, a detour toward Atlanta, the cradle of trap, on the nostalgic 24 (while selling out the Adidas Arena’s 8,500 seats along the way), they would ultimately push the history of US rap forward at breakneck speed on Biglaf, a brisk mixtape that placed them at the level of the most adventurous American peers.
The War Is Declared
From this position—at the forefront of a race led with masterful control—the 27-year-old rapper is about to give one final push to decisively defeat the competition with her second album: the belligerent Finis-les. A title that keeps returning throughout the record, appearing in every form, addressing fellow rappers, the industry, traitors and detractors, as a declaration of her singular place in French rap. Fiercely independent, conquering and artistically ambitious.
In this sense, Finis-les finally manages to synthesize, in album form, what made the four expansive volumes of EMPTY THE BIN so powerful—the stash of studio scraps and a true gold mine for diggers. The result of an unbridled experimentation with the pliability of her voice on productions that push her to her limits, finding here its most accomplished form.
Trap Elsewhere
Despite a lush trap frame largely imagined by her faithful accomplice Lyele who now seems to set the standard for her albums (the star producer Zaytoven signs the outro), La Fève twists it to find her own singularity. A reinvention of G-funk, a detour to Detroit with Rim’K, a desertion of ATL strip clubs, the rap of “the hungry one” is heard, now and especially in the South African townships under the influence of the local electronic music, gqom.
A striking idea—certainly inspired by UK rap—that subverts the club heritage of trap (50 Cent, Call the Police, Badbad…), while blending it with a genre that shares the same dark and hypnotic aesthetic, resulting in an ideal playground for its elastic flows. A tour de force.
Finis-les (Walone/Epic/Sony Music). Release on October 23.
