Those who follow the Quebec hip-hop scene have certainly seen his name. First, because SeinsSucrer is surprising, then, above all, because the Montreal rapper has released a dozen albums in the last two years and they are all good.
Before going any further, let’s settle the question of the origins of the name SeinsSucrer. “There wasn’t necessarily any intention when I chose my name,” Jessy Benjamin says straight away. I just opened Instagram one day, then I felt like trolling the world. At that time, I was still doing trap, which is a completely different style of music. In this universe, there is a bit of trolling. So I changed my name on Instagram to SeinsSucrer. I can’t even say where it came from, but I thought the world would surely be intrigued. Quickly, people started calling me that and I found it funny, in addition to being catchy and a little clickbait. And why does he spell it that way? “The reason for ‘S-e-i-n-s’, I can’t divulge it, but the ‘e-r’ is just because on Instagram you can’t put an acute accent. Our obsession with grammar is satisfied with this answer. Let’s continue.
Another peculiarity of SeinsSucrer is her voice. “One day I saw Denzel Curry doing a freestyle on boom bap, while he was also doing trap on the base. His performance made me realize that his more melodious rapping experience benefited him and gave him better control of his voice. […] When I heard Westside Gunn, I never thought of wanting to do like him, but I said to myself that his high tone, I could surely do it with my voice. Like Playboi Carti and Young Thug, I used that pitch on trap, but I had never done it on boom bap,” says the 27-year-old Montrealer.
Beyond the voice, there is also the character – which is all the more singular when you meet Jessy in person and find that the two have little in common. “The inspiration comes from my boyfriend Don Bruce from La Fourmillière. He is a kind of preacher who does very theatrical monologues. »
Between her style changes, SeinsSucrer put down the microphone for a moment to devote herself to production. Friends guided him and he trained at Musitechnic in 2018. He therefore produced most of his first albums entirely, in addition to ensuring their distribution on various streaming music platforms.
His growing notoriety allowed him to obtain beats from various local producers, such as Stack Moolah, Nomstks, Dice B and Mike Shabb. “The coolest thing about collaborating is having a different energy on an art project,” the MC says.
On Good Friday – there is no coincidence – SeinsSucrer added Reasonable Doubt to his discography. The 11 pieces were produced by GenericTM, which has worked with Eman and KNLO, from Alaclair Ensemble, among others. This is the first collaboration for the duo, who worked on the album for about six months.
“I knew him when he was still doing the baby voice style, says Jean-Sébastien Perron, alias GenericTM. Later, I saw that he changed gender in a Basement Session video filmed during the pandemic. I spoke to Greg [Beaudin] about it and he told me that I absolutely had to contact him so that he could listen to my music. »
As soon as he received a first selection of beats, SeinsSucrer wasted no time before recording because, without being able to explain it too much, inspiration always comes to him quickly.
“Boobs is so spontaneous,” says GenericTM. After sending him some beats, I let him go. I was on vacation and he sent me lots of recordings. When we got back, we changed a few things and we structured the whole thing. We wanted there to be marked sections, with a chorus, for example. They are more structured songs, which he did less on his other albums. »
Even without having a great knowledge of hip-hop, we can notice that Reasonable Doubt is a translation of Reasonable Doubt, Jay-Z’s first album. “It’s an album that I really like, confirms SeinsSucrer. But the expression in itself represents many things. Doubt can lead you to some confidence, then confidence is not necessarily the absence of doubt. Maybe it’s the control you have over doubt. »
“The sound aesthetic reminds me of Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt because it’s like a movie,” adds GenericTM. There are also nostalgic and funky elements in the music. The creative side of doubt, like questioning how we make art, is another facet. Then there is literally the concept of reasonable doubt in court which inspired the design of the album. »