Jusbox Perfumes - Night Flow
"The dark streets burn while creating a kind of "The Warriors" atmosphere. Suddenly the record player stops and lights turn off, windows shatter and electronics store have been mobbed. From blackout to a revolution!" V-Monkeys, Bronx July 13th 1977.
It is the 1970s. In New York, African and Latin American youth, many of them from Caribbean immigrant families, react to poverty, urban renewal, deindustrialisation and inner-city violence by creating their own cultural movements. A new music genre is developing from parties to a genre of its own, in which DJs play breakbeats, MCs rap their lyrics, breakdancers show new steps and graffiti artists redesign walls and entire trains. All this is a form of expression. It is protest, pride and creativity; it is rap.
Rap battles' between MCs are beginning to have an impact on fashion and style; there is a desire to present success and wealth against the background of poorer neighbourhoods and hard life. Diamonds, gold chains, watches and expensive accessories are a statement to prove it to rivals and themselves.
At the end of the 1970s, rap and hip hop from the Bronx made its way first to Manhattan, then to L.A. and the entire USA. In the following decade and beyond, the new genre became a worldwide force that could not be stopped. Language no longer plays a role: the rhythm, attitude and message of rap became universal.
For Night Flow, master of ceremonies Julien Rasquinet created a eurhythmic, intense and courageous composition. An extraordinary freestyle of saffron, pink pepper, Arabic jasmine, osmanthus and davana over the melody of a leathery base with sounds of tolu balsam.
