ManacorJoan Oliver Roig (Manacor, 2002) 'Cosijoan', is a rapper and art history student. Red cap from Manacor and Majorica pearl necklace. He has just released his first album Morir d'èxit, a statement of intent for a work that starts melodically but ends up being incredibly banging. He presents it next Saturday, September 12th, at Sa Factoria in Manacor.
Where does the inspiration for this cover and the title 'Morir d'èxit' come from?
— I really like art history. Greece and Rome are also a kind of reference. I was thinking a bit about this when I named the album... it doesn't really mean much beyond that or anything exact. The laurel wreath on the cover... going from having everything to having nothing. Also the end of the first song ends like this and I thought it would be a good title.
10 songs in a little over 20 minutes... very fast everything
— I like it fast, it's a bit like punk, short and powerful songs. Being able to listen to one song after another without them tiring you out. I have an obsession with not being repetitive. The songs don't need to last so long if the message is direct... I'm not a machine either! [smiles], it's better short and good than long and bad.
Was it expected to be able to record and present your own album?
— At first I didn't... it was like "what should I do if I don't even know how to play the flute"... I won't be anyone. But then with two beers I saw that I could rap improvising. I am very good friends with Jaume's brother [Forteza, Plan-ET], Xisco and with him we started.
With Plan-ET he recorded the first song
— Yes!, it was Christmas Day, I remember he asked me if I wanted to rap on the track, if I wanted to collaborate on it. The song is called 'No me coneix' from 2024.
How do you define your sound?
— Trap in Manacorí... I don't know what name it would have. The first five songs on the album have a different character and structure from the remaining five. The first ones are more melodic, in a futuristic style, inspired by Chief Keef or Lil Uzi, from the eastern part of the United States. The second part makes you want to spit bile. The first ones are more about partying while the others are for telling someone off. I'm 'enjoying it'.
How do the letters come out. Do they come before music in your case?
— Most of them come from a concept I write on the way to university, from something that makes me angry, and from there comes improvisation. Always on a musical base. The 'flow' and the melody to then fit the lyrics. When I listen to the base, I see how it should go. It's very complicated for trap compositions to go the other way around.
Cosijoan is a curious artistic name...
— Because my high school friends called me 'primo', especially a colleague named Andrés who always said 'call primo Juan to come to the party!'... and from there came the name, translated as Cosijoan.
Doesn't 'bro' like it anymore?
— I am against it, cancelled!!, because we have to say 'bro' when we can say 'cousin' or 'mate'.
Red cap from Manacor, five stars, pearl necklace... How important is aesthetics?
— Very important. I consider myself a 'dandy'. If I don't dress up I'm not comfortable. I think for rap, image is necessary, take what's yours and be original. You see the rappers you like at 15 or 16 years old and you think: 'I want to be like them'.
Where would he have liked to live?
— I live very happily in Manacor, but if I could choose, I would have liked to live all the buzz of New York in the 90s and 2000s, going out, the music, the hustle and bustle, sitting on the stairs with my colleagues... The Knicks and Spike Lee.
And state references?
— Rap in Spanish has always been an important reference too, Yung Beef, El Mini... there are very good people.
Manacor as the center of trap in Mallorcan. Did it cost them to start in Catalan without having many references?
— Yes. Mostly because we felt Catalan was too romanticized a language to make songs about unpleasant or violent things... Catalan lacked grit; it was as if you couldn't be dirty or a bastard in Catalan.