Abd al Malik: “Martin Scorsese is a rock director, I am a hip-hop director”

Wallen, his wife, wrote 9.3 BB, a new series for France TV's Slash platform, which the artist produced entirely in Seine-Saint-Denis. He explains his vision to us, between poetry and hip-hop.

It is the story of Leila, 19 years old, who will fall under the spell of the theater and more precisely of Bertolt Brecht. To forget the painful loss of her fiancé, she will try to rebuild herself on stage and convince her friends in the city to put on a play with her.

The singer Wallen wrote 9.3 BB as a hymn to culture, theater and the people of the cities. Who other than her husband, Abd al-Malik, to stage it? The artist directed the 8 episodes of this Slash creation, which has the declared ambition of filming the suburbs in a new light and in an original form, in “clip style“totally assumed:”I believe above all that it is a spirit, the “clip” spirit, entrusted to Première Abd al-Malikwhich clarifies its definition of the genre: “There is a relationship to colors, a specific approach in the frames. Martin Scorsese often says that he is a rock director. Me, I’m a hip-hop director!”

The artist claims various influences which have shaped his aesthetic, notably that of hip-hop culture. Abd al-Malik admits to having been “marked by the visual and aesthetic aspect of the clips. There have been great “clippers” in the history of hip-hop. People like Hype Williams for example. And then there is also the world of photography linked to hip-hop with Jonathan Mannion for example. These images had an impact on me in my career as an artist and I wanted to draw inspiration from all that. Kendrick Lamar's music videos today aren't just rap music videos. They say something artistically, and I wanted to be part of that dynamic.“

So what is trying to say 9.3 BB through the images ofAbd al-Malik ? The message is clear: we must show the city without its drug dealers, the suburbs with its dynamism. Because the committed heroes of the series do not “not talking about a minority but a majority” assures the artist. “The problem with series about drugs in the cities, like Top Boys for example or others, is that we forget that there are essentially men and women who have completely normal lives in these neighborhoods.” The director goes further and insists:

“I'm not saying that trafficking doesn't exist, but it has an exceptional character. But we forget that there are other stories that deserve to be told, which are beautiful stories, strong stories. Wallen and I both grew up in housing projects, she in Saint-Denis, me in Neuhof in Strasbourg. We have a particular relationship with working-class neighborhoods and we wanted to tell the story, to show how it happens and that. These young people are not necessarily hermetic to culture. It's about unraveling clichés.

After the small screen, Abd al-Malik will be back on the big one soon. He has just finished filming his new film, The Furcy Slave Affair10 years later May Allah bless France.

9.3 BB – April 19, 2024 on France TV.Slash – 8 episodes of 26 min