Jewel Usain

What remains to be done after completing the difficult mode of a game? This is the question faced by Jewel Usain after the release of her latest project, “Mode Difficile”, in 2021. His answer is illustrated in a 17-track debut album entitled “Où les garçons grandir”. The young boy Jewel Usain grew up in Argenteuil in the suburbs of Paris. Passionate about music, he himself became an artist, active and present on the French rap scene from the mid-2010s. His last project allowed him to definitely register on the map. He spoke of the difficulty of a salaried life from which he sought to escape. Another era. 

As if the controller had been stored at the bottom of a drawer, “Where Boys Grow” is a real update of Jewel Usain’s artistic proposal. Carried by quality arrangements and a solid narration, this coherent work follows the sincere approach of an artist in full evolution who feeds the ambition to settle without blushing in the pile of these great albums of this new generation of French rap. It is in the hands of Rémy Béseau, multi-talented composer present on the majority of the album, that the musical color he wanted was illustrated. Far from sticking to the rap that he perfectly masters, Jewel Usain tries brilliantly on terrains that require precision and sensitivity: where we discover him as comfortable on neo-soul and R&B colors as on real gospel harmonies. At his side, it is naturally that the voices of elegant MC like Prince Waly, Tuerie or the singer HEDGES intersect. 

Where boys grow up is the album of a confirmation: that of Jewel Usain’s talent. He makes his rage and his spirit of revenge shine as much as his thoughts and emotions. After going through the difficult mode, he settles in a more serene mode, and proposes with this album a music with which his audience is destined not only to grow also, but especially, to expand.