Justice & DJ Mehdi & Busy P In The Mix

About the Artist

Recorded for radio, 29 February 2008.

Some recordings hold a moment without trying to. This is one. An afternoon in February 2008, three names at one desk, and outside, a decade still finding its shape. Justice were a year past Cross, at a point few records ever reach. DJ Mehdi brought what nobody else could bring. And Pedro Winter stood in his last year managing Daft Punk and his first year as whatever came next. We keep coming back to this recording. Not out of nostalgia. Because it is good.

DJ Mehdi, born Mehdi Favéris-Essadi, came up through the French rap group Idéal J from 1992. He produced on MC Solaar's Paradisiaque and on albums by 113 before making his Ed Banger debut in 2003: the B-side of Justice's Never Be Alone. Lucky Boy arrived in 2006 as the label's first album. He remixed Daft Punk, Cassius, Chromeo. There was a bridge between French rap and French house, and he was it. He died in Paris on 13 September 2011, aged 34. If you want to understand why his name still carries the weight it does: DJ Mehdi, Made in France, six parts on ARTE, directed by Thibaut de Longeville, his childhood friend. Free on arte.tv. Take the time.

Justice, Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, were in 2008 in the middle of what D.A.N.C.E. had set off. Sixteen years later, Hyperdrama carries a track called Afterimage. It is the one we keep returning to. Sixteen years sit between that radio recording and that song, and the line between them is unbroken.

Pedro Winter, as Busy P, founded Ed Banger in 2003 and signed Justice, Mehdi, SebastiAn, Mr. Oizo, Cassius, Breakbot. In 2024 he was named Officier des Arts et des Lettres.

Three names, one recording, an afternoon in February.