Nodey

Back in the 1990s, Paris was awash with graffiti. Back streets and boulevards in every arrondissement found themselves caked in tags of various legibility. Like denim jeans and hamburgers, hip hop and all that came with it was an all-American import that young Parisians embraced with open arms. Rifling through the racks in record shops like Urban Sounds for the latest releases from from the East and West coasts was a teenaged Nodey. The record shops might have shuttered, and the city might have rid itself of the graffitis, but Nodey’s passion for hip hop is just as strong now as it was when he first heard Wu Tang Clan and Cypress Hill way back when. The son of Vietnamese immigrants, Nodey’s singular approach to production has marked him out as one of France’s most in-demand beathsmiths. Fusing the Vietnamese records he grew up on with contemporary US rap, and a touch of the kind of club-ready house and techno it’s impossible to avoid in Paris, his work to date is invigorating, innovative, and hugely individualistic.