With 'Rien Ne Sert De Courir' (loosely translated "nothing's worth running for"), Les R'tardataires, a Liege based collective, is presenting its second long player. As the imaginative sleeve illustration (the work of Pso Man) already implies, Les R'tardataires have created a musical universe of their own in which hip-hop seamlessly blends with genres like reggae ('Les Parasites', 'Monte Le Level'), rock ('Rock It'), ragtime (closing track 'Bienvenue Au Saloon'), soul/blues ('Les Biftons', a combination with Shana Mpunga) and French chanson. At heart Les R'tardataires of course remains a hip-hop band - 2 MC's backed by bass (Benoît 'Big Ben' Lesage), guitar (Sébastien Hogge), keys (Quentin Nguyen or Emmanuel Delcourt) and drums (Aurelien Wynant) - and so the emphasis lies on the vocal skills of MC's Ced and Max and their intelligent socio-critical lyrics. To understand them, of course, some knowledge of French is needed, but not to worry as in the liner notes of the album you can read all the lyrics at your own leisure. We already offer you a taster from title song 'Rien Ne Sert De Courir', in which they condemn our often hectic Western lifestyle:
Ils courent pour faire leurs courses, au marché, leurs emplettes
Ils courent pour leur gloire ou ils courent à leur perte
Ils courent sans réfléchir sans même savoir pourquoi ils le font
Ils courent comme des fous peut-être parce qu'ils le sont
So definitely no running required, but this album is absolutely worth your attention!