With their acclaimed second album just released and set to perform at Piknic Électronik later this month, the members of Montreal hip-hop group Planet Giza spoke to La Presse about their debut, 15 years ago, of their rise outside Quebec and their boundless ambitions.
Their album Ready When You Are has just been released and the specialized media praise it. On the other end of the line, in a call for which all three members of Planet Giza have made themselves available, Rami B, Doom X and Tony Stone seem as aware of their potential as they are down to earth.
“As soon as we saw that there was this potential, it was always our goal [to do something that goes beyond the local scene]”, says Rami B, in an interview.
When we talk to young artists like the three members of Planet Giza, who produce music with an international vocation with undeniable dexterity, we first want to know if they were always destined to get there. Did they fall into it when they were little? Were they composing melodies before they could even speak?
Not surprisingly, we learn that Rami B, Doom X and Tony Stone were all immersed in music from their earliest childhood. In Haiti, Doom had “different style music at home all the time” and received releases from the United States via satellite radio. Rami has always had raï, Algerian music, in his ears. As for Tony, it’s the R
And yet, the three companions all explain to us that they decided much later that music would be at the center of their lives. Perhaps because we rarely learn that embarking on an artistic path is the best option. But already in adolescence, their passion developed.
Very young, Doom and Tony met on the basketball court, then met again later in the summer of 2008. The first was already making beats at the time and the second got into it right after their encounter. “He came to my house, I showed him FL [Studio], how to make beats. Later he met Ramy and they formed a band together. They asked me to work with them. We did a first song that did well. We continued to collaborate until we decided that we had to form a group together. »
Planet Giza was born. The group is basically made up of beatmakers. Initially, the three accomplices worked on their productions and invited artists to add their voices. “At one point, we wanted to have rapper Mick Jenkins on one of our songs and we couldn’t get him,” says Tony Stone. The guys told me that I should try to do it. The reception was really good and it kind of started the transition to what we are now. »
Tony continues to work on the beats, then adds the lyrics, he explains. In their early days, experimentation is the watchword. If the style of their hip-hop, very funk and R
“That’s what we’ve been aiming for for a long time, without having the term to describe it: we take elements of the past and make them more modern, in our own way,” he adds.
Montreal’s thriving underground scene has given Planet Giza a lot. Today, the group recognizes this while noting that it quickly had bigger goals. “At the beginning, when there was the Artbeat Montreal [a community for the promotion of Quebec producers], we were a lot in there, says Rami B. Doom and I, we did a lot of DJ sets. But after our first album [Added Sugar] in 2019, we were more interested in making music for Montreal, but just the best music we could make. And bring it back internationally. We like living in Montreal, but I don’t think Montreal has an impact on our ideas, we’re really in our bubble. From anywhere in the world, we would have made the kind of music we are making now. »
Rami says it, Planet Giza has global aims. You can hear it when the members talk about their project, but you can hear it especially in their music, which has hip-hop influences from the American West Coast, with a touch reminiscent of Tyler, The Creator, mixed with R
There is no formula for making music that is exported, reminds Doom X. “We release our music, we push it as much as possible, we rely on word of mouth. »
Collaborations with international artists are on the rise. On Ready When You Are, Mick Jenkins, femdot, Saba and Sun are among the guest artists. Names that are not familiar to everyone, but which show that Planet Giza has a growing popularity with the American artistic community.
And judging by media and fan reception, Planet Giza ranks among Canadian artists whose rise is imminent, if not already underway. Keep an eye on them.
