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Interview date 4/8/2000
Let me introduce you to a special rap group: Intik. Intik consists of 4
Algerians who have experienced all the violence and terror of Algeria in the
late 80s and 90s. While the music itself doesn’t express much anger when
you listen to the beats, the lyrics are powerful and often moving. Rapping
in both French and Arabic, they appeal to the large Maghrebi community in
France as well as the hip-hop communities of their home country and France.
The name Intik means “everything’s going great”, a name chosen ironically
because at the time the opposite was the case. I spoke with Youssef on the
afternoon of one of their concerts on their recent tour, this one for the
Cabaret Frappé festival at Grenoble. The concert was amazing – a mixture of
cultures and ages in the crowd that you don’t usually see at hip-hop
concerts were treated to a good hour of tracks from the album, with Youssef’
s great singing on the Reggae tracks and as backing to other tracks a
perfect complement to the bilingual rapping.
How would you define Intik's music?
I'd say it's Intik - we don't really have any other group as a reference...
the group is a fusion of cultures - the traditional Algerian and the Western
culture. It's a mixture of Chaâbi the traditional Algerian music, of Reggae,
a bit of groove, and a bit of Raï too. Then as far as a rap group goes,
we're different from the rest too, we have melodies, we don't just have
breaks in loops that we rhyme over, when we write our rhymes we're not
thinking of peoples’ responses or if it's radio-friendly, it's not for a
gimmick. Behind the lyrics there's all our backgrounds.
And the live experience?
Live, Intik is Reggae, Ragga, hip-hop…
2 turntables and 4 microphones?
Well at the moment we haven’t got a DJ, we have a DAT and a PC2000 for
concerts like tonight. At the bigger venues, we have a whole backing group,
with singers and musicians – a guitarist, bassist, traditional Algerian
percussion, a Lute player – that really adds to the live experience – it’s
not all preprogrammed, all the instruments express themselves. Then you
have concerts like tonight when it’s just us and the DAT! You just have to
make do with what you have. We learnt that in Algeria – we used to play
with instrumentals on a 4-track, and bit-by-bit we’ve progressed, and now we
’re hoping that we’ll get to the stage of having our own band, our own home
studio to bring through people from over there. There’s quite a big scene
in Algeria – united and with quite a good level of quality. Some havegone
for the commercial side and lost it a bit like, I’m sorry, Doc Gyneco [a
French rapper who having been down with the legendary Ministere AMER, went
solo and produced slick commercial tosh]. Now we are nearly all united
saying ‘Stop the Violence’. There have been more than 100,000 deaths since
1990.
We don’t hear much about it anymore, but is seems that it is still going on?
It’s continuing, that’s sure. There are things that are hard to understand,
especially when you’re right in the middle of them. When we were in Algeria
it was like when you’re too close to a television screen. You don’t see
anything. Now we’re here in France we can see it all more clearly. You
have to ask who benefits from the situation. There are politico-economic
interests – Algeria is very rich in natural resources - oil, gas, uranium.
So for example as long as Algeria is in trouble, the petrol prices stay
lower.
In forming the group, was it with the idea of passing a message to people?
Well it's a message, it's a call to people for peace. We got together after
the events of October 1988 when the people had just had enough. We were in
the streets - we were 12, 13, 14 and 15 at the time - we were demonstrating
along with everyone else, without really knowing why we were there because
we were young, there was an innocence in us still, we weren't aware of what
was happening. To resume what happened, the army suddenly appeared and
started shooting into the crowd, we were caught in the middle, we weren't
together at the demonstration but we all lived this same experience. So it
was after this drama, with people panicking, people falling, being shot -
there were about six million people in the streets when the army started
shooting - so one way or another we managed to get away,find a way through
the crowd - it was easier for us because we were small. But even for those
that survived, we were marked by the experience, some physically. It was
only two or three months later that what had happened really sunk in, that
it was reallyserious - that any one of us could have been left lying there
with a bullet in the head or in the body. Where are human rights? Where is
democracy? The people have the right to express themselves, to say no, to
say yes or to abstain. That was our passage from adolescence to adulthood.
Like we say in one of our tracks '... they stole our youth ...'.
After that, seeing as we all lived in the same area, the connection was made
pretty quickly. At first it was football that brought us together, then we
realised that each of us had something to bring ... Reda was already into
rap in 1989, he was writing rhymes in Arabic, Nabil too, Samir as well, I
was more into the reggae and ragga scene, the roots side of it. In 1990 we
decided to do Algerian rap. There was American rap, French rap, we had the
means to make Algerian rap - we have a language which is quite fluid so that
helped, and then in 1990 the adventure began.
You talk about Public Enemy in your lyrics - was it through listening to
them that you realised that rap could be an outlet for the rage you all had
in you?
Exactly - Public Enemy was one of the first groups who, I won't say
influenced us, but who brought out this rage in us. They virtually brought
down senators in the States, so for us they were examples. They were young
at the time, and they weren't afraid of opening their mouths. So we said,
we're Algerian, we must do something for our country. Some people took the
route of resisting by fighting with weapons, but us, we're against violence,
so our resistance was using our song, our lyrics. The language of words not
of weapons.
And you could get hold of rap easily at the time?
No it was really difficult, but difficult isn't the same as impossible. We
had ways of getting hold of the music. There was always someone in England
or in France who'd send us cassettes, they'd get copied 10 or 20 times so
the sound would be virtually gone or at least bad quality. When you love
music you manage - they say that music has no frontiers - so evenif there
aren't specific people who bring it back it gets in anyway on its own.
Was rap and ragga particularly censored in Algeria at the time?
Well we were never directly, officially banned - unofficially yes but not
officially - it's censorship of the lyrics. Some rap gets played on the
radio and TV, but it's 'politically correct' rap, and it turns out that us,
we're not politically correct...
So there was a monitoring of the lyrics?
Yes, there was monitoring of the lyrics. There was even an article in a
certain newspaper about a month ago, it was a communiqué that came out, it
said Intik and another Algerian rap group MBS and Basis, a singer, we can't
be played on the radio, we can't play concerts there. It's a bit mad you
know - they say that this isa developing country, but with this new
government I'd say it's a country which is moving backwards not forwards.
You can't be afraid of words - in a democracy you should have the right to
say what you think. It's the Peoples' Democratic Republic of Algeria, it
should be called the Peoples’ Republican Dictatorship of Algeria. It's more
of a dictatorship than a democracy. They give the impression abroad that
it's a democracy, but there's no question that it's in fact a dictatorship
out there. I come from there, I know what I'm talking about. For a time we
didn't have the freedom of expression, not even of thought. For a while it
was a witchhunt against intellectuals, because they are people who think, we
don't have the right to think. We understood quickly that we would have to
do without any kind of radio or television promotion, we weren't welcome, it
wasn't for us. So we thought about it between us, and we decided we just
had to get out there, self-produce. I remember being in small halls, about
30 people, we'd say it was for a birthday, then once everyone was there we'd
shut the doors and get on stage with our microphones - so we understood it's
like that you know.
Some groups here say we're lucky to've got our deal, but it's not luck.
It's 10 years now that we've been together, not just since yesterday. If
we've got this deal it's because God wanted it to happen. It's not down to
luck - you have to go and seize opportunities - don't wait for them to come
to you. 18 months ago we'd never have believed that we'd be in France to
perform. That wasn't our objective. That wasn’t at all our objective.
Even when they invited us to come over here, to sign the deal, to record an
album and play concerts, we were afraid. We were afraid that we’d end up
doing French rap in Arabic y’know? Once we arrived though, we realised that
we’d never lose our uniqueness because it’s our culture. When we came over
I was 23, now I’m 25, so I spent 23 years of my life over there. That can’t
be changed – 23 years is 23 years, it’s not 23 hours! So we soon realised
that we didn’t need to worry about that.
And coming over happened through Imhotep from I’AM – how did that happen?
Well we had some friends in Paris and Marseilles, so whenever we had
recorded something - usually over something like a Public Enemy or Kool Moe
Dee instrumental – we’d record on a little tape recorder. We’d send it to
our friends just for them, just for them to listen to, and one way or
another Imhotep heard one of the tapes, I don’t know how, and it was during
the organising of the ‘Logic Hip Hop’ festival at Marseilles, and Imhotep
was organising the festival. So he said ‘these two groups have to come and
play at the festival’, there was Intik and also another Algerian group
called Hamma. We were a bit afraid of how the crowd would react with it
being our first international concert, but we put on a good show, the
contact with the crowd was good, and from that moment on there were
independent producers and major labels too, who started getting interested
in us. Then it was just a matter of negotiation, and we signed with Sony,
or St George to be exact.
And your then came the release of your first album.
Yes – the birth! It was really like that – we were carrying this album in
us for all that time and we were finally able to give birth. The only
disappointment was that we weren’t able to give birth in Algeria, but it
just wasn’t possible. That’s a real disappointment. We managed to do one
thing - the next best thing we could, that was to release the album in
Algeria on the 5th January 2000, same day as it was released in France. We
were really pleased to be able to do that. So our people in Algeria were
really able to hear it at the same time as the French.
I find that rap in general is going backwards at the moment – nearly
everyone is making commercial rap– people used to make hip-hop, now they
make a product to consume, a pre-formatted product. We’ve had to battle to
keep our artistic direction. You shouldn’t format art. There are too many
groups – American and French – at the moment who just turn out pre-formatted
albums. I like the Wu Tang clan – RZA’s production, and Method Man – his
lyrics can be excellent – but now they seem to have become bigheaded. After
the first album it became the Wu Tang industry. We haven’t got to that
stage yet!
Many thanks to Intik
www.intik.net
To exerpts from some of their tracks, follow the links below (the links on their site don’t work…!):
© ukhh.com 2000
Intik Interview
interview 0028 added 05.10.00 words Flat 4
...it was really difficult but we had ways of getting hold of the music. There was always someone in England or in France who'd send us cassettes...
and to the Cabaret Frappé festival of Grenoble
www.delalune.com
