The album “Black Paradise” has been available on all platforms since July 24. Originally from Nice, Nsuko presents fifteen tracks exploring universal themes, from romantic disappointment to contemporary social issues.
His real name is Thibaud Despont and he is an artist from Nice who has been surrounded by music since childhood. With a pianist mother, he learned to play piano but never made it a vocation. For years, music was not among his priorities. Yet his life took a completely different turn a year ago. Faced with a serious health problem, he realized the importance of music. “It’s like a legacy, I need to leave a mark,” he confided.
The year 2020 had already marked the end of a cycle and a change for this artist from Nice, with the loss of his father. His stage name “Nsuko” comes from the cult film “Kickboxer“, which helped introduce Jean-Claude Van Damme to the general public. “We watched this film with my father when I was little. I remember there’s a scene where he fights in the ring to avenge his brother and the whole crowd chants Nok Su Khao, which means white warrior,” explained the thirty-something.
Even in the background, music has always accompanied Nsuko, from his first lyrics in 2006 to his first solo projects in 2012. He composed some productions without adding his voice to them. “My thing is really to use my life to write and perform my songs,” he revealed.
An album with multiple facets
“Black Paradise” opens with the track “Heavy Hearts“. For Nsuko, this song sets the tone for his musical creation. The opening line “heavy hearts eventually empty the barrels” shows “the repercussions of hardships experienced by a person,” he confided.
Among the fifteen songs, the theme of romantic misfortunes is recurring. “They are part of my story,” explained Thibaud. In his track “Alzheimer“, the Nice-based artist illustrates the pain felt during romantic disappointment, drawing from his own experience. To forget, he earnestly begs the doctor to prescribe him Alzheimer’s. “I think we’ve all experienced this situation, when we’re inhabited by a person in each of our gestures and thoughts,” said Nsuko.
The album mixes carefree tracks like “Netflix“, as well as songs with deeper meaning. For “Salam“, Thibaud drew inspiration from the story of his best Senegalese friend: “This song is for all the people who had to leave their country for another in hopes of succeeding.” This song evokes the internal conflict between family sacrifice, the distance from roots, and the desire to continue living this new life. “Several people were deeply moved by this story, even if it’s not theirs at all,” explained Thibaud. This track demonstrates the evocative power of music.
With “Making the Devil Cry“, Nsuko managed to find the words to transform an event of rare violence into a musical work. This song tells the story of a boy, victim of rape during his childhood, who, years later, faces his aggressor and succumbs to violence. “I never thought in my life that I was going to make a song about that,” he confided with emotion.
For Thibaud, this song is not technical and the placements are simple, because the stakes were elsewhere: “Certain things will be a part of you whether you chose them or not. Sometimes you might feel they are a weakness, but you often realize, at the end of the day, that they’ve become a strength. It’s this abnormal situation that pushes you to fight.”
In the studio in downtown Nice, Nsuko confided that recording this song was particular: “I wasn’t sure about the sound quality and especially that it would be well received. But in hindsight, I don’t regret at all putting it on the album because I want this sound to remain. It’s dramatic because it affects millions of young boys, who already have difficulty talking about it.“
The genesis of “Black Paradise”
The Nice-based artist explained the importance of finding a common thread among all the songs. “I didn’t want to make a compilation, I really wanted to make an album with sonic, vocal and thematic coherence,” he explained.
Every day, Thibaud carries a voice recorder with him to capture a phrase or theme that comes to mind. “I listen to many different kinds of music and if one makes me feel an emotion, I explore it,” he emphasized. For this album, the thirty-something confided that he recorded thirty-eight songs but kept only fifteen. “I usually write the chorus and the first verse instantly and if I decide to keep one, I work on the second verse,” he described.
This musical project was an opportunity for Nsuko to address themes close to his heart: “Making clichéd rap is not my thing, even if it sometimes happens that I’m with friends and make little freestyles,” he confided with an amused air.
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