http://50Balles-music.skyblog.com
50 Balles, former "Rap2rue" is a young Moroccan rapper, songwriter and performer, born in 1987 in Casablanca. There are two possible explanations for his stage name: either he’s using a slang expression that can be translated by "50 Francs" (the "old" Euros), paying tribute to the American rapper Fifty Cents, either he’s referring to the more serious police blunder that took place in New York in 2006 where, after a collision road, the officers fired for fifty times, killing Sean Bell, a 23 years old African-American, the day before his wedding.
50 Balles scoured a lot of Moroccan MJCs since 2004, and he featured with many French (Smitch Cathy, Sannai, Rel’k, Stekoss) and Moroccan (Free Boy, Camisole Click, Souna, Hilda, Y2s, Tony) rappers. He defines himself as an improvisation professional. In 2011, he releases a solo album in self-production at Artmusic, entitled « Salade Marocaine ». 50Balles writes all the titles, and J-Prod and Free Boy Chaht Man work on the mixing.
50 Balles admits his influences towards the American rap movements. He is perceived as decent representative of the emerging oriental rap, still seeking for his own identity, unlike his big brothers from the group Fnaïre ("lanterns" in Arabic) who have developed a real rap identity marked by a Morocco Spirit. The "salad", as mentioned in the album’s title, does not really offer the village flavors.
It is rather seasoned with Urban Jungle spices. The themes of the songs are worn to the point of becoming a caricature, with a recurrent reference to money, as the name of the young artist strongly suggests, a theme that is widely developed in his title "Saizi monnaie". 50 Balles also likes pretty girls, smoky parties and illicit traffic. Nothing is missing, not even a part of the ghetto that one seems to have already widely consumed.
50Balles loves improvisation, we would have preferred if he’d taken a little longer to put his lyrics in written. Otherwise, the flow of 50 Balles is not unpleasant, and one can enjoy the sound and the mix of his street album, comfortably seated of the car, in the city traffic. To be confirmed. 50 Balles, it’s not worth much, but no one hates to have some money at hand, right?
