Say It Loud: rapping off the beaten track

(Divine © Olivier André)

One of the aims of the Sessions Urbaines hip-hop festival is to blend the power of rap with the richness of live instruments. At this, the fifth edition, both established MCs and talented beginners will let their words flow to music by a live band (guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, and saxophone), specially formed for the Say It Loud Project. Organiser Lezarts Urbains aims to create a space in which the MCs have freedom of expression, a musical laboratory in which rappers step away from their usual stage formulas. Once the format has gone out the window, there is space for improvisation and a jam session in the jazz and spoken word traditions. As a leg-up, the MCs can perform one of their own songs before making way for a freestyle. Featuring the Belgian-Congolese rapper Pitcho who has just released his futuristic album #rdvaf and the Brussels-based Herb Cells, who released a new album with Frown-I-Brown in 2012 and is again making a new album this year with his other group, Wild Boar & Bull Brass Band. As well as Mochelan from Charleroi, who hops between rap, chanson, blues, and trip-hop, French rapper Ypsos, and Abderzak of the A6MIL collective, which released its first album, L’agonie du silence in 2012.

You can also see Seriak of the Oh My Prod collective, MC MTO of the funky brass band Rue des Pêcheries, the Senegalese Lyrical 44, and the American Deco. And lastly, a feminine touch from Liège with Divine, whose dubstep, grime, and drum 'n' bass are somewhat rougher.

Sessions Urbaines #5: Speech Debelle, DYnamic & Say It Loud Project 31/1, 20.00, €10, Botanique, Koningsstraat 236 rue Royale, 
Sint-Joost-ten-Node/Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, 02-218.37.32, info@botanique.be, www.botanique.be, www.sessionsurbaines.be