Orelsan back to take the throne

Orelsan is coming back soon with a new album. It’s the perfect opportunity to look back at the journey of one of the most influential French rappers of the last 15 years. One of the most successful, too. But also one of the artists who very early on gave strength to Project X Paris, or more generally helped bring attention to streetwear.

Orelsan returns with a new album... which is already a hit! Orelsan is soon back with a new album, “Civilisation”. A project scheduled for release on November 19, but... it’s already almost gold-certified! A feat achieved through pre-orders. Orel developed a whole concept around the album release. He imagined 15 different physical editions for his album, with 15 different covers, as well as the discs inside. Some are more limited editions than others, which is the perfect ingredient to create buzz around a release. Goal achieved, as 15,000 copies were sold in the first hour of sales on Friday, October 29. A figure that shows just how much Orelsan is truly in another dimension, that of icons. Four days later, pre-orders reached 30,000 copies and today, a week before the release, more than 48,000 copies have been pre-ordered. We are therefore 2,000 sales away from gold certification even though the album hasn’t been released yet, and in France, this is simply unprecedented.

Given this anticipation, we can measure how important the rapper has been for his listeners over the last 15 years. While he carries a bit of the eternal teenager label, Orelsan is today a veteran of the rap game, which he has been part of since the 2000s alongside his close friend Gringe. In 2004, they even released a mixtape under the now famous name Casseurs Flowteurs. Then in 2009 came “Perdu d'avance”, his classic solo album. It became the rallying cry for a somewhat disillusioned and aimless youth, who didn’t feel particularly represented by some gangster rap codes. By claiming and embracing this attitude of a “young slacker” and magnificent loser, he ended up making it cool, and even freed some personalities to rap. No need to be a gangster or anything else, just be sincere and rap something that represents us. But even back then, under his appearance of only caring about manga, video games, and girls, he had a true artistic vision, combining simplicity and style, which we find in his love for streetwear.

Orelsan and Project X Paris, a look back at an effective connectionHe really started working on this style side from the album “Le Chant des Sirènes”, aware of the importance of appearance at a time when rappers have to release many videos. He even ended up creating his own streetwear brand, Avnier. But in the meantime, the Caen rapper also gave strength to all the brands he loved, like Project X Paris for example. This collaboration gave us the opportunity to have him wear the most iconic pieces from the catalog. We have some great photos where he poses with the signature sweatshirt, timeless, or the incredible chest bag, a very street piece that suits him very well. But obviously, what suits him best is the tracksuit. It’s no coincidence he rapped in “Ramen” in 2005: “I spend my life in tracksuit, but I’m too lazy to do sports”. A tracksuit pant with reflective stripes that really matched well with the signature sweatshirt, as if it was made for it.

But the best photos of the collaboration are probably those with the big orange jacket and the Project X Paris cap, two essential urban garments for a streetwear outfit. With Monsieur Fifou, who had the idea to make him pose in front of a bike of the same color, handling the photos. The snowy photo with the white sherpa signature sweatshirt (or pilou as some like to call it) and the white tracksuit pants is also really amazing, it gives off a melancholic vibe that suits Orelsan very well, and which is also very present in his music. It could almost have been an album cover, but at the same time, it’s normal with Fifou at the helm. Moreover, the sherpa sweatshirt is an essential model for winter streetwear looks and was one of our best-sellers in the last collection. That’s why we created our brand new Soft Mood capsule composed of different sherpa models (sweatshirt, jogging pants, jacket and many more…). In short, you got it, at PXP we are really happy to have counted Orel among our ambassadors and we send him all the strength possible for his upcoming album “Civilisation”. For hardcore fans, the rapper’s brother also released a documentary series about Orelsan’s rise, available on Prime Video.