Gambino La MG, the heir to Les Ulis

The town of Les Ulis has played a major role in the history of rap. Gambino La MG is the heir to this great school, and he continues to honor the 91 region's reputation with talent. Focus on the phenomenon.

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Rise through networks

As is often the case in rap, the area in which the rapper grew up is important: his music is nourished by his environment, which is very urban for the most part, and the lyrics constantly evoke the setting in which the artist cut his teeth. For Gambino La MG, he was rather "lucky" for a rapper: he grew up in Les Ulis, one of the best-known neighborhoods for rap fans, not least because of Sinik's incredible success in the 2000s, which clearly put the town on the map. His individual commercial success hides a host of other talented rappers from the same town, forming a very dynamic rap scene, particularly in the underground and battle scenes. The city is loaded with rap, and the young rapper obviously drew on this energy to launch his career. In fact, it was thanks to the large number of rappers in Les Ulis that he was able to form his first group, La MG (for "Mauvaise Graine"). It started out as a simple Facebook page where all the youngsters in his town who wanted to rap signed up. Later, the more serious ones decided to form a real group, keeping the initials, in order to make real tracks.

Pour Gambino La MG, il s'agissait depuis longtemps d'une démarche sérieuse, lui qui a découvert le rap grâce à son père et ses oncles et qui publie ses premiers sons sur Youtube à 13 ans, sous un autre pseudonyme. Il a même été supervisé par Sinik pendant son tout premier enregistrement au studio municipal. Avec son groupe, il connaît rapidement ses premiers gros buzz avec « Rentre dans le 91 » en 2018. Certains artistes, sportifs ou influenceurs se mettent à relayer les morceaux de Gambino et ses potes, notamment Niska, Virgil Abloh ou Anthony Martial, à qui ils avaient dédié un morceau en 2018. Mais difficile de transformer le buzz en streams et en revenus. Et le rappeur du 91 va profiter du confinement pour donner tout ce qu'il a via les réseaux sociaux. Il commence une série de freestyles sur Instagram, qui prend très vite avec certains titres qui dépassent le million de vues. Il a été un des premiers à importer les sonorités drill en France, en y ajoutant quelques sonorités afro ce qui donne des sons assez particuliers, à la fois très gangsta et très dansants. Un créneau qui a été adopté par la plupart des artistes à succès dans le Rap FR actuellement, comme quoi, le jeune Gambino était un peu visionnaire. 

Throughout his career, networks have played a key role. Firstly, social networks, with Facebook, then Instagram for his freestyles, but also the street network, the Ulis network, which means that the local music scene is all very well connected. After a first project called "En attendant Gambinerie", which brought together all his freestyles, this year we were treated to the long-awaited "Gambinerie", released in March, which lived up to all its promises. Tiakola, Negrito, Larry, Chily, Naza, Leto, many of them answered the call of the young prodigy from 91 for a dense project that augurs very good things for the future. In the meantime, Gambino la MG continues to unveil highly effective unreleased tracks, such as "Les Moussos" recently. He has also stepped up the number of interviews, and is working more and more on the image of his clips. An aspect that interests us a great deal at Project X Paris.

The PXP x Gambino La MG collab

Because even though we do a lot of collabs, what we like best is when the artists let loose, feel at ease and have an attitude that inspires our graphic artists and designers. This was the case with Gambino la MG, who has long understood the importance of image, especially in the drill. We started slowly, with pieces that are great classics in just about every situation: the streetwear "university", with these sapes that refer to the clothes worn by American students, to show their belonging to their University. So we have a university-style hoodie with a big "P" logo on the chest, in two colors, and jogging bottoms in the same style, which also have a big logo on the upper right leg. The ensemble was enhanced by the small pair of TNs worn by the rapper, as well as by the pretty white Lamborghini, the star of the shoot, which obviously pleased the artist, who also has one in his latest video "Les Mousso".

Lambo again accompanied us on the next outfit, which is a little more out of the ordinary and with a much lighter style. Make way for pale hues and the softness of the dove with this ensemble from the High Fly capsule. Loose-fitting blue dove-patterned tracksuit bottoms with a round-neck sweatshirt in the same color, for a very effective look. All the more so when you add a PXP bob and the square shoulder bag with purse, adorned with " Project X Paris " logos. And of course, there's always this pair of TNs, a cult favorite from streetwear and characteristic of the French street, where the model was a huge success when it could be practically shunned elsewhere in the 2000s. Then, to get a little more into the artist's "drill UK" universe, we decided to put the Lambo away and call on another vehicle, perhaps less on the side, but just as aggressive: the Yamaha snowmobile. A vehicle that goes perfectly with the down jackets and parkas from the "Drill & Drip" capsule, tried on during the shoot. They're not yet available on the site, but they're going to be a must-have this winter!

Gambino the MG then tried on an outfit from the "Squad" capsule. A very American capsule in design, with the distinctive typography of the logo, the cuts of the garments and the shape of the collars. The outfit and colors evoke the gansgta imagery of US rap, mainly East Coast, with this baseball influence, but also the presence of a ski mask, gangsta accessory par excellence, especially since the arrival of drill. A striped, baseball-style hoodie with tuned jogging bottoms, the black ski mask proudly mounted on the Yamaha: Gambino has a crazy attitude, just like in his music videos. So it was a real pleasure to work with him and try to come up with something that suits him, wishing him all the best for the rest of his long career. And we hope to work with him again in the near future!