On February 16, 17 and 18, 2024, the large hall reserved for classical music, the Philharmonie de Paris, offered rapper Oxmo Puccino carte blanche. On one of the three evenings, the man who is one of the finest names in French rap took the opportunity to record in public the TV show “Bâtiment B”, which he has been broadcasting for three years on French channels Televisions. On Saturday February 17, surrounded by his musicians (drummer Vincent Taeger, bassist Juan de Guillebon, keyboardist Arnaud Roulin), Oxmo Puccino invited all his friends to cover the classics and duets from his seven albums.

And Abdoulaye Diarra has some very prestigious friends, from all generations, who come from many worlds (rap of course but also jazz, song and R’n’B). So nothing more natural for him than to begin the recording of this concert with a meeting recorded a few hours before the show, where MC Solaar sings a cappella his hit Caroline, the first love song of French rap, to which Oxmo Puccino responds by his own statement, I didn’t know you. Claude MC, on tour, will not attend the evening concert, but wants to show his affection to his colleague.

“King without a coach” with Brazilian flavor

There will be a lot of talk about love during this concert. With the singer K-Reen, Oxmo Puccino begins the concert with The day you leave, and continues it with piano voice with Sofiane Pamart for The Child Alone. The guests parade, BB Jacques and Busta Flex for Esprit mafieux, Lino and his little brother, T.Killa, for Fautes de français, whose refrain resonates terribly in an era that seems devoid of love: “We explain things to each other but we don’t listen to each other, we speak the same language but don’t understand each other. We grew up together but we don’t know each other. » Oxmo Puccino, for his part, declares his love for French song and for Vanessa Paradis with whom he delightfully performs a King without a coach with a Brazilian flavor. One of the most beautiful moments of the concert with the interlude by DJ Viktor.

The audience, mainly young people in their thirties, reacted to the beautiful rhyme, the precise scratching, the reference and exulted when Oxmo Puccino descended into the crowd for his classic Love and Jealousy. A nice homage to hip-hop culture, in fact. Refined, sober, Building B by Oxmo Puccino is the other side of rap, without the bling-bling but with the class of words and gestures. Before singing his wonderful 365 days, the rapper will summarize: “You know, what we blame the most on the people we loved very much, what we regret the most, is the time we spend ‘t happened with them! » With this Building B, time is not wasted.