Caballero & JeanJass, the two prodigies of Belgian rap

Example of the vitality of the rap scene from Belgium, Caballero & JeanJass released their new album, Double Helix 2, on May 12th. The opportunity to talk with them about the Belgian hype, boom-bap and Charleroi.

“It looks like the rest of the world finally knows we exist, as if it had discovered another continent.” Caballero & JeanJass are not quite newcomers. But the wave of Belgian rap that strikes France shows how much the flat country lacked visibility for many years. By releasing their album Double Helix 2, scheduled for May 12 and several extracts have already been released (including On high and On my name), they plan to confirm their year 2016 started with fanfare with Double Helix. Together with Hamza, Damso, L’Or du Commun, Romeo Elvis and others, they form the new Belgian armada that has been talked about for two years.

No more condescending to our neighbors. However, Caballero recalls: “It was not peculiar to rap: you plugged NRJ in the morning, you hear a guy make a chronicle about Belgian jokes”. And JeanJass chained: “Things change, in cinema like this, and even in football.Stromae, Poelvoorde, François Damiens … The Belgian is popular at the moment.This condescension disappears to give way to a form of admiration, freshness… Sometimes, I draw a parallel between the place of Belgium in rap French and that of Toronto in rap US “.