I have recently become a little obsessed with all things French and it’s all thanks to this baby faced 24 year old, Eddy de Pretto.
To label de Pretto’s music simply as ‘Hip Hop’ is to do him a bit of a disservice. While there’s certainly (for want of a better term) ‘Urban’ elements, his sound is so much more musical than traditional Hip Hop. Ooozing melody and hooks galore, de Pretto sings his bars more than he raps. There’s even strong elements of more classic, brooding French sounds like those of the enigmatic Serge Gainsbourg in tracks like the piano led, ‘Mamere’. Piano which he plays himself.
Eddy de Pretto and his music is as much a product of his upbringing as it is of society itself. Born to working class parents, a Truck driving, Football fanatic Father and an Art loving Mother who encouraged him into Theatre at a young age. He melds his past with the ambitious, multicultural and sometimes disoriented present of modern day Europe. To see him onstage, dressed head to toe like an upscale Urban Outfitters model plucked straight off the terraces at Paris St. Germain, He is an example of his peers. He is everyone. Often armed with nothing more than a mic. in one hand and his iPhone playing his backing track track in the other, It’s his understated intensity coupled with a confidence and sensitive musicality that makes him such an irresistible force.
Seriously hoping for an Australian Tour sometime in the very near future… Have a ‘Tres Bien’ weekend, everybody.