They don't know each other, but when they first arrive at the La Converse studios, there was immediate chemistry between Genki, Chérubin, Versatol, Versatol, SMG and YBB. Complicit laughs and jokes abounded between these five young people, who — they didn't know it yet — were on the verge of creating something that would exceed their expectations.
After almost two months of weekly meetings and learning under the mentorship of Raccoon, they recorded a song in the studio as well as a video clip on the various topics they discuss in their piece. These themes include addiction, armed violence, and the hypersexualization experienced by young people in their city.
By describing how they see what is around them in society, the Messagers Converse act like real journalists, informing anyone who wants to know about the reality of their neighbourhood and community.
MC: between Masters of Ceremonies and Messagers Converse
We are in mid-June, it is the beginning of summer. On the fourth floor of a building located in the Ahuntsic district, the Messagers Converse arrive one after the other and discover the Toosik recording studios. The big day is here: today is the day they record their song C'est pas la fin du hood. While it's a normal session for some, for others, it's the first time in the studio. Meet the MCs in the heat of the moment.
When Genki, The Developer, starts rapping, it's easy to find Montreal's soul in his verses. Whether in the choice of words or the Slang that he uses, the young rapper from Saint-Léonard is well aware of the reality that surrounds him and his family.
Barely 20 years old, he started making music a year and a half ago. Of Algerian and Spanish origin, Adam is a local youth who is not afraid to say it. “I come from Saint-Léonard,” he said at the outset. "For me, my neighbourhood is like a second home. It's a familiar place for me, I grew up there,” he said.
Recognizing the reality of racialized young people like him in Saint-Léonard, he says that music has in some way saved him from street problems, which affect more and more isolated young people. “When I started making music, I saw rap as a kind of story to tell through words. It was a synonym of hope for me,” he explains.
“With rap, you can create a connection with everyone who listens to you. You can use your experience, and with that, you can reach and inspire a lot of people,” he says. One of the reasons why he is so connected to the fourth art is that he feels that, thanks to music, it is easier for him to express his reality, his emotions.
“At the end of the day, we're all humans,” Genki concludes. The important thing, when you are young, especially when you come from a hood, is knowing what is good and what is bad. You have to be able to distinguish between negative and positive choices and the impact they can have on us and others.” The message he wants to convey to his peers is clear in his verse from the Messagers Converse song. “There is a lot more to your hood ; get up and start up! ” he says.
Just a few months ago, Justin started using the microphone to express himself. Quite shy and introverted by nature, he loves to write. “I like music for the creative side, because you can put images in people's heads,” he says.
Born to a Haitian mother and a Quebecois father, BigJ Chérubin grew up on the outskirts of Montreal. He believes that rap came at a perfect time in his life: “It allowed me to say out loud what I was thinking in a low voice. I was withdrawn for a long time, and now I use rap to externalize what I internalized, what I saw and experienced when I was younger,” he explains in one breath.
For him, rap is an art and is very technical. “When you grow up, muscles develop in the body, but also in the voice. Words are formed in the heart, then in the head,” he explains, impassioned. These words end up coming out and finally reaching the others, and for Justin, that's what rap is all about.
“There are a lot of young people who are looking for themselves, who do not necessarily have confidence in themselves and in what they can achieve. Unfortunately, some people are going to gain that trust in the wrong place,” explains Justin. He adds that he sees that a lot in Montreal's youth today. “I didn't have confidence in myself, but the older you get, the more choices you have. I think that younger people should see life as a marathon. It's long, but it's not difficult; you just have to keep going and not give up,” he philosophes.
Learning from your mistakes and building on thiose lessons would be the ultimate advice that Chérubin would give to anyone who wants it. He considers that he was “lucky” because, in a way, music came to save him. In his verse in C'est pas la fin du hood, he talks a lot about how easy it is to get lost in life when you are young. “Everything happens quickly, but you don't have to rush. You have to find time to thrive! ”
The experience of Mistral, a young man in his 20s, is heavy. He was born to Haitian parents and grew up in the Fabreville neighbourhood in Laval. He is also proud of it and does not hesitate to mention it when talking to him.
“Music and writing have always been a part of my life,” Versatol tells us. First of all, it was the creative side of writing that appealed to him. “I started writing a lot in elementary school. I wrote down everything I saw, what I felt, what I experienced. Then, it turned into short stories, into poems, and it became slam and rap as I got older,” he said.
Versatol tells us that, when he was younger, he had a lot of difficulty overcoming certain challenges. “I was often attacked for who I was, how I spoke, what I looked like. It affected me a lot,” he said. But he adds that it is in some way because of this that he took refuge in music. “I spent a lot of time alone, and that allowed me to explore music thoroughly.”
Versatol chose to talk about drug use issues and how that affects their neighbourhood, but also all hoods of the city as well as their young people. His reality, like that of many others, was “absent parents and a void that needed to be filled,” he wrote in C'est pas la fin du hood.
“Keep that and stay Clean,” even if it is difficult: that is the message Versatol sends to all those who are confronted with the world of the streets. He also ends the Messagers Converse song with a message of hope, in which he says that “the hood is injured; with a pen and paper, you can express your passion.”
It was with his group of friends when he was in high school that SMG (whose first name is Samuel) got into rap for the first time. He was far from suspecting that these jokes between friends would push him much further.
SMG grew up alone with his grandfather on the South Shore. His parents couldn't raise him, he tells us wholeheartedly. “My mother had an accident at a very young age, and my father was involved in street problems,” he explains.
At a very young age, he became a “bad boy,” in his words. “Problems with the law, lots of school changes, etc.,” he lists. "I often had to make new friends, so I was alone a lot of times.” However, he says that when he started rapping, he had a lot of support from those around him.
“A few months ago, one of my friends passed away. It shook us all," he said, talking about his friends. "He was someone who supported me deeply in rap, but also in everything in general.” He shared his successes and his good times with him. Everything was shared. “This was taken away from me. It's something really hard, I can't live with him anymore,” he says sadly.
His friend tragically lost his life in circumstances related to gun violence. In this way, he wants to send an important message to the youth of his city, but also to those who have the mandate to protect them. “I realized that anyone can be killed stupidly. Good people who don't deserve to die lose their lives in the blink of an eye. But we are in reality, and we have to learn from it; that's what I try to do with my music,” he explains.
“Let go of the dangerous street environment and focus on your dreams”: these are the wise words of SMG. To be able to live is a privilege, he believes. “If you have a life, you have to have a dream and do everything to make it come true. Don't wait until it's too late to regret it — be it prison or death,” he ends firmly.
Originally from Bangladesh, YBB Wit Da Heat (YBB to his friends) is a fervent rap lover. Growing up in the Ahuntsic district, in the north of the city, forged his personality and allowed him to have an honest look at the reality of the streets in the city.
“I've been making music since the time of the pandemic,” he says. What got him hooked, he tells us, was attending a studio session with friends of his oldest brother. “It was a lot of fun writing texts. I was only 12 or 13 when I first went to the studio, I was fascinated by that. I knew I had to try to make music by myself,” he recalls.
When he was younger, YBB didn't see his father very often. “He worked a lot, I only saw him one day a week. Seeing how much he sacrificed for his family, especially for his children, motivated me a lot to work so hard when I got older,” he said.
The 19-year-old spent much of his youth with his oldest brothers. “I hung out a lot with people older than me, they taught me a lot of things, good and bad...” he said. Ahnaf has the impression that by associating with “the elders of the hood ,” he became mature more quickly than young people his age.
One of the issues that YBB talks about in her songs is the difference between your parents' generation and your own, especially in immigrant families. “I see a lot of young people my age lying to their parents, taking advantage of the fact that they don't speak the language well or don't know how the system here works... I think it's an opportunity for us to create relationships with others and we throw it away,” he explains.
For him, all this is linked to the question of identity, which is very unclear for many young Montrealers with an immigration background. “I am trying to show how some people try to project a false image of themselves, and what are the consequences of this for youth,” he explains, talking about the problems he sees in his surroundings.
Ahnaf believes that the most important thing for young people is influence. “You should not be influenced, you should rather be inspired by what you see,” he finally declares. Young people's judgment is based on what they see and hear, and that's why YBB decided to speak and rap in C'est pas la fin du hood.
Expressing the reality of the hood by song
Gun violence, bad influences, drug use... Reading the lyrics, it's easy to see a stigmatized vision of Hood And what it represents. But for our five MCs, C'est pas la fin du hood is a hymn to hope. It is a promise of success for young people who come from neighbourhoods that we tend to forget or, worse, to judge.
Thus, Genki, The Developer, BigJ Chérubin, Versatol, SMG and YBB Wit Da Heat are young rappers committed to their community, but also valuable members of their neighbourhoods and the city. Through their ability to use the art of rap and music to describe the main concerns that plague their own, they are true ambassadors of the hood.