He was the first to make rap in French audible, the first to record an album in a major in 1990. And yet, many current rappers do not know his name. Lionel D, whose real name is Lionel Eguienta, died on Wednesday February 26 in a hospital in Orpington, UK.
From 1988 to 1989, he hosted the Sunday show on Radio Nova Deenastyle of his accomplice Dee Nasty. Their two hours on the air, which all the first rap fans recorded on cassette, contributed to the dissemination of hip-hop culture in France, and especially to its expression in the language of Molière. But in the mid-1990s, after the commercial failure of his first album, No problem, published by Sony, Lionel D had fallen into oblivion.
In the early 2000s, the rapper had rebuilt his life in the United Kingdom, working as a waiter. Of the three numbers on her phone, only her friend DJ answered the call from Princess Royal University Hospital. In a Facebook post posted Wednesday evening, Dee Nasty reported an employee’s comments: “ He went to the emergency room for severe stomach pain and then suddenly collapsed and suffered a heart attack. “The DJ then urged the hip-hop community and the politicians to mobilize so that the death of his friend be” worthy and up to the artist he was “.
The MC, having had no passport since the late 1990s, no more known family still alive, could be considered destitute by the British administration and cremated. The following day, the Minister of Culture, Franck Riester reassured the media personalities of rap who called out to him: ” Lionel D was a reference for a whole generation of rappers and hip hop lovers. His disappearance arouses a strong emotion which I share. My services are currently linked to the French Consul. “
He gave up rap in 1994
Lionel Eguienta was born on December 23 in 1961 in the 15e arrondissement of Paris, a mother from Auvergne and a West Indian father. He grew up in the Jean Cousy district of Vitry-Sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne), and discovered American rap in the late 1970s by following the productions of the Sugar Hill Records label. ” I met Lionel D at the music festival in 1984, recalls Dee Nasty, contacted by The world. In my cassette station, there was my first record, Panam City Rappin. Lionel stopped, said to me: “Me too, I rap“. Except that he had a much better level than me. Back then, rapping in French was like heartbreak. “
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