It’s a nickname that his mother, an English-speaking Cameroonian, already gave him when he was little. It is not a question here of honoring a certain ultra-liberal morality which would make fun of one's neighbor and which would glorify unscrupulous greed. No. Tayc is more about taking everything, seizing opportunities, moving forward at all costs, never giving up to honor your passion, music.

Tayc, 24, born in Marseille and based in 91 since his adolescence, is not a man without ideals. On the contrary. He doesn't want to skip ahead, doesn't want to sacrifice quality on the altar of profitability. He is less a robber than an architect. He wants to build up more than tear down. He wants to record songs that take you far, he wants to do as he pleases. He prefers, to misleading shortcuts and heartbreaking clichés, self-sacrifice, patience, effort, overcoming pain to write his story in the ink of authenticity. This diligent athlete, who has never been afraid to sweat blood and water on a weight machine, knows that those who respect their anatomy have a better chance of going far. Healthy mind, healthy body, yes, there is that. Undeniably. It's a strength.

As a child, music is not this family tradition, this DNA transmission. No musicians on the clock, no guitarist uncle or pianist mother. “Neither flute nor harmonica” he remembers, with a smirk. No. It is alone that Tayc will dig his furrow. First of all, it’s the clips that play in loops on his TV that fascinate him. Music videos from Billy Crawford, Usher, R Kelly, Chris Brown. The colors attract him, these images that come to life just for him, the choreographies, these little worlds that come to life in the living room. Today, he has not forgotten and pays particular attention to the image when making his own videos. He is ambitious, he knows what he wants and what he does not want. He is aware that music today is a whole. There is the sound, of course, but also the appearance, the decorum.

Fans of easy labels would qualify his music as urban pop. As if there was country pop... Tayc deserves better than that. He does R&B, that dirty word in the 90s, when rappers publicly sneered at singers, whom they listened to in secret, when they no longer had to prove their virility. “When I was younger, I used to hide to sing with friends. It was crazy! ” This idiotic and hypocritical fashion is fortunately obsolete in 2020.

R&B owes less to rap than the other way around. He is the base, the foundation, the origin. He is this voice which sings of love, suffering, and which offers respite, communion, hope. Marvin Gaye, to name but one, proved it for eternity. Brief. Tayc is a modern-day crooner. R&B, song, as long as it doesn't lie, it takes. And he is preparing to release his first real album after four mix-tapes. A first album with a magnificent title: “Fleur Froide”.

Explanations: “For me, since my beginnings, I have imagined the flower as a woman. My symbol is a withered rose. I even have it as a pendant. Why faded? Because many women have suffering within them, every woman has suffered in her life, whether in love, in friendship, or at work. With her children, with her family... And for me, “Fleur Froide” is the apotheosis of a woman’s suffering. She drank so much that she became cold. She no longer feels anything. His heart, his body, are frozen. And I'm here to warm them up. The cliché of the submissive woman, reduced to her physique, is just saddening. If I talk about this theme all the time, it’s perhaps because I grew up with a lot of women. It's my whole childhood. My mother had seven sisters! They rocked me..."

Let the cynics rest assured: Tayc has not chosen women as the common thread for his songs like others opt for violence for strategic, marketing purposes. You just have to hear this record to be convinced. He doesn't cheat. Tayc is not monomaniacal either. He can also sing about the reality of the streets, police violence, social alienation. He has time. He has the right voice. On the record, he also evokes his existence, the hardships inherent to the exhibition, the ruthless networks, the falsified identities, as on the title “Ce Vie”, an impeccable introduction. But he is aware of one crucial thing: today, hatred is within the reach of anyone. And love is a difficult fight.

There is a very beautiful song on the album, “Qui”. Where, behind the woman, there is still God. His soul, Tayc, is not ready to sell it on Amazon. This disc is obviously accompanied by a cover. An oxymoronic cover, where the beauty of the visual impacts the representation: we see Tayc hit by a bullet, leaning against a car, his body as if covered with flowers of a thousand colors. And again, nothing free but a real concept: “In fact, this cover is the first part of a situation. I got killed, we don't know why or by whom. I just died. We will have to wait the next few months, after the release of the record, to understand what really happened...”. So be patient.

But what is most striking when listening to this “Fleur Froide” is the richness of the influences, the depth of the arrangements. We go from jazz to pop, from R&B to a kind of modern soul, we cross continents. It was the faithful BARACK ADAMA who produced the thing. And NYADJIKO, BLACKDO AND DSK ON THE BEAT who are the beatmakers. There are some feats too: CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS, TIWA SAVAGE, LETO, CAMILLE LELLOUCHE. There are several worlds that meet. Tayc is as much a child of Africa as he is of Europe and the United States. Even from Asia (he speaks enthusiastically about certain South Korean productions). He assimilated everything, digested everything, without ever rushing, to ultimately draw his own artistic identity and that is quite impressive. “I prefer to wait five years to release an album worthy of “Thriller” than to rush and release shit,” he explains. The voice of reason. The production is massive, without ever overwhelming anything. We feel on this record a living, live spirit, as if we were in the studio with the protagonists. If we were to draw a parallel, artists like The Weeknd or Bruno Mars have this same spirit, this ability to mix genres without ever getting lost.

There aren't many people capable of that these days. Music is a story full of mysteries, it stretches an invisible thread that connects eras, generations. Tayc placed his hand on this thread. He will not disappear into the maze. He found his way.

Twenty years ago, Tayc would have been a backup singer at best. In the background. “R&B used to be Voldemort (laughs), it was forbidden to talk about it!”. In 2020, he is ahead, very ahead. Gims, Dadju opened a door. Which will never close again. Tayc is a singer. A singer of today. With deep passion and a voice that knows how to exist without special effects or gadgets. The future belongs to him.