I don't usually blog about French hip-hop, but this time I'm making an exception. As the French group La Rumeur (Ekoué, Le Bavar, Hamé, Kool M, Le Paria & Soul G) returns with a vinyl release collecting their previously unreleased recordings from 1997 to 2007, it feels like the perfect opportunity for me to revisit Ekoué's first EP, originally released on vinyl in 1996. It remains one of my top ten French releases of that year, and it marked the beginning of a trilogy that would unfold between 1997 and 1999.
Before becoming one of the most distinctive voices of La Rumeur, Ekoué first made his name in the Yvelines, in the Paris suburbs. Alongside Philippe, who would later become known as Le Bavar and Mourad a.k.a Le Paria, he discovered hip-hop and began rapping as a teenager. The three friends gradually started working together and eventually formed a collective with others from their circle, initially known as Ultime Coalition.
For Ekoué, however, rap was never disconnected from the rest of his life. His academic background was far removed from the stereotypes often associated with French rap at the time. He studied political science and public law and graduated from Sciences Po. This education would later inform his writing and his approach to social, political and historical issues. Yet La Rumeur would never simply define itself as a political or militant rap group. Their ambition was more about describing their reality and offering their own perspective on the world around them.
In the mid 90s, Ekoué began attracting attention beyond his immediate circle. One particularly important encounter was with Rockin' Squat, the founding member of Assassin. Ekoué appeared on Assassin's 1995 album "L'Homicide Volontaire", contributing to the track "L'Odyssée suit son cours". The appearance introduced him to a wider audience and demonstrated that he already possessed a strong enough identity as an MC to stand on his own.
It was also during this period that the collective that would eventually become La Rumeur began to take shape. When Hamé joined Ekoué, Philippe and Mourad, the name Ultime Coalition gradually gave way to La Rumeur, around 1995. From the beginning, the group operated more like a collective than a conventional rap crew. Each member had his own personality, voice and perspective, while contributing to a larger artistic vision.
This philosophy would have a direct impact on their first releases. Rather than immediately putting out a full length album, La Rumeur chose to introduce its different MCs through a trilogy of EPs. Ekoué opened the series with "Le Poison d'Avril", recorded in 1996 and released on vinyl that same year, before receiving a CD release in 1997.
The project became the first real musical statement from La Rumeur. Across its five tracks, Ekoué takes center stage, with production from Soul G and Kool M. The song "Blessé Dans Mon Ego" would become one of the project's defining tracks. Ekoué explores his relationship with his Togolese heritage and the particular experience of a generation of children of African immigrants who grew up in France. His writing refuses simplistic answers : caught between France and Togo, his sense of identity is constantly being negotiated between two worlds.
But "Le Poison d'Avril" goes far beyond questions of identity. Many of the themes that would become central to La Rumeur are already present : the legacy of colonialism, social conditions in working class neighborhoods, France's relationship with its immigrant communities, and a deeply critical view of the rap industry itself.
Ekoué's writing is particularly striking because of the way it places the text at the center of the music. Rather than relying on the conventional image of the rapper as a larger-than-life performer, he builds his identity through observation, precision and confrontation with the contradictions of his time. His delivery is direct, dense and uncompromising, while his lyrics constantly move between personal experience and broader political and historical questions.
This makes "Le Poison d'Avril" more than simply the first EP in a series. In retrospect, it can be heard as a blueprint for much of what La Rumeur would become.
Listening back to Ekoué's earliest work today, it is striking to realize how much of the group's identity was already there in 1996 and 1997. Long before La Rumeur became a reference point for uncompromising French hip-hop, Ekoué had already developed a distinctive voice, one built on personal experience, historical awareness and a determination to say things on his own terms.
With "Le Poison d'Avril", Ekoué was not simply opening a trilogy. He was laying the foundations for an artistic approach that would define his work and leave a lasting mark on French hip-hop.
