Orelsan back to take the throne

Summary

Orelsan returns with a new album... already a hit!
Orelsan and PXP, a look back at an effective connection

Orelsan is soon back with a new album. It's a chance to look back a bit on the career 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 to an interest in streetwear.

Orelsan returns with a new album... already a hit!

Orelsan is soon back with a new album, "Civilisation". A project scheduled for release on November 19, but... It will almost already be gold! 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 ideal 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 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 release, more than 48,000 copies have been pre-ordered. So we are 2,000 sales away from gold status while the album is not yet out, and in France, this is simply unprecedented.

Given this anticipation, we can measure how important the rapper has been to his listeners over the last 15 years. Although he carries a bit of the label of eternal teenager, Orelsan is now a veteran of the rap game, which he has frequented since the 2000s with his good 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 was the rallying cry for a somewhat disaffected and disillusioned youth, who did not feel particularly represented in some gangster rap codes. By claiming and embracing this attitude of "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 this or that, just be sincere and rap something that resembles us. But even back then, under his air of only caring about manga, video games, and girls, he had a true artistic vision, combining simplicity and style, which is reflected in his love of streetwear.

Orelsan and PXP, a look back at an effective connection

He 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 clips. 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 liked, 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, for example, very nice 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 that he rapped in "Ramen", in 2005: "I spend my life in tracksuits, but I'm too lazy to do sports". A tracksuit pants with reflective stripes that really matched well with the signature sweatshirt, as if it was made for it.

But the most successful photos of the collaboration are surely 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 have him pose in front of a bike of the same color, behind the camera for 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 incredible, it gives off a melancholic vibe that suits Orelsanvery 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 behind the camera. Moreover, the sherpa sweatshirt is a must-have 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, joggers, 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 on Orelsan's rise, available on Prime Video.