Cosijoan: "It could not be brown or a bastard in Catalan"

ManacorJoan Oliver Roig (Manacor, 2002) Cosijoan, is a rapper and History of Art student. Red cap from Manacor and Majorica pearl necklace. He has just released his first album Morir d'èxit, a real declaration of intent for a work that starts melodically but ends up being incredibly raw. 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 more 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 that 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 getting tired. I have an obsession with not being repetitive. The songs don't need to last that long if the message is direct... I'm not a machine either! [smiles], it's better short and good than long and bad.

Did you expect to be able to record and release 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 [Forteza, Plan-ET] brother, Xisco, and with him we started.

With Plan-ET you 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, of a futuristic style, inspired by Chief Keef and Lil Uzi, from the eastern part of the United States. The second part makes you spit your guts out. The first ones are more for partying, while the others are for telling someone off. I'm enjoying myself.

How do the letters come out. Do they come before the music in your case?

— Most of them come from a concept I write on my way to university, from something that makes me angry, and from here 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 is very complicated for trap compositions to go the other way.

Cosijoan is a curious artistic name...

— Because my high school friends called me 'cousin', especially a colleague who was called Andrés and who always said "call cousin Juan to come to the party!"... And from there came the name, translated as Cosijoan.

And bro don't you like it anymore?

— I am against it, cancelled!!, because we have to say 'bro' when we can say 'cousin' or 'buddy'.

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 that for rap, image is necessary, to take what is 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 we have liked to live?

— I live very happily in Manacor, but if I could choose, I would have liked to live through all the buzz of New York in the 90s and 2000s, going out, the music, the hustle and bustle, sitting on the steps with friends... The Knicks and Spike Lee.

And state references?

— Rap in Spanish has always been an important reference, Yung Beef, El Mini... there are very good people.

Manacor as the center of trap in Mallorcan. Did it cost you to start in Catalan without having many references?

— Yes. Mostly because we felt Catalan was too romanticized a language to make songs about fucked-up or violent things... Catalan lacked street cred; you couldn't be a Moroccan or an asshole in Catalan.