Moroccan Rapper Demi Portion’s New Album Tops Charts on Apple Music and Amazon

Moroccan rapper Rachid, better known as Demi Portion, had not imagined that his album would be such a hit so quickly. "For now, it’s going well, the public is supporting me a lot, we’re even number one in physical sales at Fnac and Amazon," the artist rejoices. "We didn’t really expect it, we haven’t done any crazy promotion yet, so it really touches us," he explains to France 3.

For the album release, the artist gave a "wild" concert in his words. "We did a little promo, a small wild concert at the Comédie in Montpellier near the fountain on the day the album was released with two microphones, a speaker and four or five tracks. Still independent, family, without pressure."

Nicknamed "Old School", the album would suggest the French rap of the 1990s. The sounds remind of rappers and groups such as IAM, Fonky Family (of which he had been the opening act in the 1990s), Alliance Ethnik or Scred Connexion. Great rappers with whom he has sometimes collaborated. "It’s an era I don’t forget. At the time we had to know what Hip-Hop and its five disciplines meant. We had to know who IAM and the others were. Whereas today we don’t need to know the heritage. With everything that’s happening today, we can make music quickly and well."

For the artist, rap in the 1990s had something strong and spiritual about it. "Today it has become the most listened to music in the world. It has evolved so much. Rap has no boxes. It never has had any, actually. You can be dressed in a suit, have fluorescent hair, play the piano and do rap. It’s the only music that accepts all the other musics," analyzes the rapper.

Used to releasing his albums discreetly from his studio in Sète, Demi Portion recorded the fourteen tracks of this new album in Morocco and Spain. "I was tired of going around in circles at home, I was lacking inspiration," he confesses. "At first we had planned to do five tracks in five days. In the end, we came back with seventeen songs in a week," says the artist. He took the opportunity to do a feat with another Moroccan rapper El Grande Toto. The title is Casablanca. This trip to Morocco also allowed him to recollect himself at his father’s grave.

Rachid was born in 1983 in Sète. His father is from Mohammédia and his mother from Khémisset in Morocco. He has three younger sisters and two children aged thirteen and two. He started rapping at age 12 and formed a group whose name he kept: "Demi Portion", supported by "the neighborhood elders". In his tracks, he doesn’t just talk about neighborhood life. He intends to convey a "positive" message.

Omnipresent in the cultural life of his city, he is the head of the Demi Festival, whose 6th edition will be held from August 10 to 13, 2022 at the Théâtre de la Mer and partly on the water, at the Canal Royal, in Sète.