Latest Release
- 17 OCT 2024
- 1 Song
- Cœur blanc · 2022
- INNOCENTE (Deluxe Edition) · 2023
- Cœur blanc · 2022
- Freestyle Inarrêtable - EP · 2024
Essential Albums
- 2020
- In a short two years, French rapper Jul became a hitmaking hip-hop powerhouse. His 2013 debut single, “Sors le cross volé”, was a slice of boastful hooligan rap that went instantly viral, while the following year, he dropped the jagged, nostalgic LP Lacrizeomic, stacked with boom-bap beats and harpsichord samples that harkened to Y2K-era classics from Eminem and TLC. But it was My World that cemented the Marseille native into francophone rap ubiquity, embracing four-on-the-floor beats that propelled him into throbbing discotheques. Channelling the combo of hard raps and EDM beats that anointed Akon and Pitbull as dance-floor staples—an avenue paved by French club music icon David Guetta—Jul expanded his musical palette with colourful bursts of Afrobeat and reggaetón. “Mamasita” nods directly to Jul's newfound Latin influences, spitting cockily over a driving dembow riddim. Meanwhile, the seductive “Ghost Rider” takes its cue from American R&B and North African beatmakers, making for a sultry, bass-heavy earworm. Jul is also credited for mainstreaming a French rap style that leaned more assuredly into singing, also heavily incorporating Auto-Tune, notably on the giant hooks for hits “En Y” and “Lova”. His musical voraciousness shines on the trap inflection of “Dan l'appart” and the Middle Eastern instrumentation of “Dans la légende”, which nods lovingly to his Algerian ancestry. My World was a sort of emancipation for Jul, who previously cultivated his rising star alongside the label Liga One Industry. He parted ways with the company following a dispute over unpaid royalties and merch sales, starting his imprint D'or et de platine and taking the reins of his music and brand henceforth. The gamble paid off and the album received a Platinum certification three weeks after release, eventually reaching diamond status. Jul has since become one of the bestselling French artists of all time, influencing a new generation of ambitious talent and remaking the hip-hop world in his image.
- 2024
- 2022
Live Albums
- Rhove & Sfera Ebbasta
- SativaMusic & DelaJowy
About Jul
The prolific and popular French rapper Jul represents an entirely new direction for French hip-hop. In a culture that has treasured ’90s boom-bap, he splices rap and club music into a danceable whole. Whereas many shun Auto-Tune, he’s embraced it, citing American artists like Future as the model for his sing-rap hybrid. He’s digitally savvy, having built a community of fans over social media with very little radio support. Born into a working-class family in Marseille in 1990, Jules Marie started rapping at age 12. He was thrown out of secondary school at the age of 17 and briefly worked with his father. He rapped with local group Ghetto Phénomène while composing his own songs, breaking out as a solo artist in 2014 with Dans ma paranoïa. He released an astonishing three albums that year (all of which went gold or platinum) and kept up that frenetic pace for a few years. Perhaps most importantly, Jul is part of a new generation of French rappers who are looking to the Afrobeats scene for inspiration—and finding that French audiences are wholeheartedly on board with the sound. He’s worked with French-African producers like DJ Babs, and several of his top songs, including 2016’s “Tchikita”, are built around African instruments like the kora. He’s released several free albums—for his incarcerated fans, he says—and in order to exert more control over his sound and finances, he founded his own label, D’or et de Platine, in 2015.
- HOMETOWN
- Marseille, Occitania
- BORN
- 14 January 1990
- GENRE
- Hip-Hop/Rap