Sheryo

Sheryo is a French-language rapper and member of the hip hop collective, DSP former member of Anfalsh. He’s one of the top rappers in France. Sheryo avoids national radios, TV or specialized press. He’s well known for his diss of Marseille’s French rap celebrity Akhenaton with Ekoué, his freestyle-improvisation abilities, his lyrical clash versus Marseille’s Sadik Asken and more generally his steady and articulate flow and his talent as a lyricist and a punchliner. Like Less Du Neuf, La Rumeur… he prefers to call his work “immigrant’s sons rap” instead of “French rap”, Rap Français.

Biography

Early career

Sheryo discovered hip-hop in the early 1990s with the French rap pioneers. He practiced graffiti tags, but soon after began to rap.

He made his first appearance on Faouzi Tarkhani’s unique album Guerrier pour la paix, alongside his friends, Casey, Prodige and Ekoué from La Rumeur on Dois-je me taire ?.

He rose to fame in the underground French rap world when he clashed Sadik Aske on the JP Seck’s street-tape Sang d'Encre in 2000. This tape demonstrated the unequivocal capacity of the rapper to notch up stunning and knackering rimes for very long minutes, freestyling. The original cut is available on Anfalsh’s Que d’la haine Vol.1. This was unprecedented in France. But he stood humble and flexible, in case a bigger xxxx come on him.

Soon after he turned out his first EP, Ghetto Trip - 1er Ep Zode, which found favor of critics. The freestyle aspects of his rap is omnipresent : a lot of punchlines made of simple but efficient rimes, with a very articulated and fluent flow ; the lyrics are a mix of egotrip, anti-authority, anti-establishment speech, widely developed in the eponymous track of the EP.

A black sheep in the french rap

He confirmed on the maxi single La Salaire de la Galère, where appears "Je reste underground" featuring Ekoué. In this track, Akhenaton from IAM collective is vehemently taken to task. It is a response to C'est ça mon frère from Akhenaton’s solo album Sol Invictus, where the last turned to ridicule a caricature of an underground MC who spits on great commercial figures of French rap. Sheryo took it for him. The title, Je reste Underground echoes an old IAM track, "Reste underground" on 1993’s Ombre est lumière, which was identic to C'est ça mon frère’s thematic. In addition, this song has already been targeted when it was released.

After a short spell in prison (six months) in 2003, he formed DSP - Démissionne Sous la Pression with B.James, Special Homicide (Casey et Acto), Prodige et Navea. He recorded three mixtapes under the Anfalsh label, compiling unreleased tracks, various extracts of other mixtapes and local radio stations recorded freestyles. MC Jean Gab'1 tried to diss him in 2003 on the booming "J't'emmerde". His scathing response is "MC Grand Gamin" from Anflash’s mixtape “Que d’la haine Vol.2” In 2005, he quit Anfalsh, many rumors surfaced about the reason of his departure but none have been confirmed yet.

Credo

In the framework of dissent, he’s very similar to La Rumeur in his radicality. Sheryo rejects the French rap circle and labels his music “immigrant’s sons rap”. He’s violently opposed to majors and free file-shared music ; however his EP is distributed by Virgin (but he broke off all contact, having with Anfalsh a way to autoproduce himself) and his underground status is reinforced by his presence on the p2p servers and the interviews he gave to underground sites.

Discography

Maxis & EPs

• 2002 Le Salaire de la Galère (EP)
• 2001 Ghetto Trip - 1er Ep Zode

Appears on

• 2005 Mixtape Station Zebra Total' Explosion
• 2001 to 2005 Anfalsh’s Que d'la Haine trilogy
• 2000 "La bande originale" (Les envieux)
• 1999 Mixtape Sang d'Encre
• 1999 Mixtape Un Jour Peut-Être (as Cherio)

External links

• MySpace