13 Organisé - 13 Organisé Review
With the variety of voices found on this album, it also continues to sound refreshing right to the last moment
Walking around Marseille over the past few weeks, the release of “13 Organisé” – the collaboration album led by Jul and featuring more than fifty other Marseillaise rappers – has been impossible to miss, particularly due to the slightly obnoxious vans driving through the centre of town advertising it. So-called in reference to Marseille’s area code, 13000, the album plays on this theme further with 13 tracks and a lengthy runtime of 1 hour 13 minutes. The hype surrounding this record follows the release of the lead single, “Bande Organisée” (the music video for which has racked up almost 150 million views at the time of writing) and the ambition of Jul, who is himself synonymous with Marseille’s rap scene, to bring together so many local artists for this album to celebrate the musical culture of the city.
Kicking off the album is the lead single, the anthem for Marseille, “Bande Organisée”. Released to much anticipation back in August, this track is rather infectious with its danceable beat, which remarkably all eight of the features manage to connect with. Moreover, despite being so loaded with different voices, there is excellent chemistry between the rappers on this track, from Jul to SCH to the relatively unknown Solda, who actually delivers what I would argue to be the strongest verse. There are also several quotable lines throughout the song, particularly in Kofs’ verse – though the “nique ta mère sur la Canabière, nique tes morts sur le Vieux-Port” does come off as a little tasteless. All in all though, this is a great opener which sets the tone perfectly for the album.
Following this is the more serious tone of “L’étoile sur le maillot” (“The star on the shirt”), a reference to the football club Olympique de Marseille’s 1993 Champion’s League win. Lyrically, the song focuses not on football but more on condemning the judiciary system (“Ça prend des années fermés et ça libère les pédophiles”, roughly translating to “it takes years from some but lets paedophiles go free”). It also leans into the rough upbringings of many of the featured rappers in the northern districts of Marseille. Notably, this track features both Algerino and le Rat Luciano, who have both been part of the Marseille hip-hop scene for over fifteen years, alongside some newer faces but again their styles never clash.
The production on this album is absolutely one of its strongest points. While most tracks feature fairly classical hip-hop beats, they dabble at points in afrobeat and have some moments of real experimentation. “Partout c’est la meme” and “War Zone” are particularly good examples of this quality production. Both feature infectious, danceable beats which somehow manage to accommodate the wide variety of rap styles featured. In both tracks, the production balances a uniformity to tie all the verses together while not getting boring during the fairly long runtime of each song – the shortest track on the entire album being 4:28.
In fact, the longest track, “Tout a changé”, clocks in at 7:24. Featuring mostly more old-school rappers, it focuses on how much things have changed, particularly in a negative way, as the city has become a hot bed for violent crime in France – particularly in the northern quarters where 40% of people live below the poverty line. Since those featured were young, Stone Black mentions, weapons have arrived in the city (“Tout a changé dès l'arrivée des armes, dans mon temps, on faisait des têtes puis des fêtes”) making it a much more dangerous place for young people to grow up nowadays. For an album looking to represent Marseille, a track like this is unfortunately very important.
The weakest point for me on this album is “Miami Vice”, which features easily the least interesting beat – the only one on the album which feels irritatingly repetitive by the end of the song. While the repeated onomatopoeic sounds scattered throughout the album make for a fairly interesting motif, they also go a little overused here, taking up almost half of each of THABITI and Sysa’s verses. Though the rest of the verses pass through fairly smoothly, the chorus just sounded a little too clean and characterless for my liking.
The album’s energy does not tail off at all towards its end, with the bangers “13 balles” and “Je suis Marseille”. With the variety of voices found on this album, it also continues to sound refreshing right to the last moment – despite the long runtime and discounting its one overstayed welcome. The closer “Je suis Marseille” is probably also one of the most mature sounding tracks on the record, with the beat resembling more of an old-school style, particularly with the drum pattern. Lyrically, it looks again at the struggles of growing up in the northern districts of Marseille with poverty, crime and betrayal.
Bringing in over fifty rappers whose careers have spanned three decades for an album is no mean feat but Jul’s ambition really pays off here. There is quality sprinkled all throughout this record, giving a loving but honest representation of Marseille. With a solid mixture of bangers and more introspective tracks, each verse continues to justify the longer runtime of each track and the album as a whole. On top of this, it is clear, with the hype and the execution, that 13 Organisé will be a seminal project within Marseille’s vibrant rap scene for years to come.
