ABOUT US
A razor tonged creature of unknown origins, Mama Said imposes itself with a unique kind of rhapsodic hip hop. The war cry of a tortured soul punctuating the image of a turbulent world seen through the mirror image of an intimate prism. As an uprooted American, Mama Said’s misanthropic wordsmith navigates a maze of contradictions with a lyrical precision of incisive acidity woven into a soulful hip hop.
Supported by an electrifying instrumental crew and a captivating hype woman, Mama Said is an explosive stage experience: the erudite singer wrestles with the eye of the storm to sermonize the failings and absurdities of a flailing society in a cathartic and melodic flow.
Mama Said's repertoire is as diverse as the urban culture of its author: rhythm & blues, indie rock and soul are the identity of his plural American youth. As an emancipated street kid, Joshua dabbles in poverty, wealth and abandonment to the rhythm of the decadence of the American megapolises of the 90s. His texts bear witness to the violence of Los Angeles: shootings, evictions, the AIDS epidemic, crack, serial killers; the toxic enthusiasm of a delirious city in decline. Beyond this eventful and precarious childhood, the illiterate poet turns to a sort of literary irony: “talent is born in that uncomfortably familiar space where the rubber hits the road”. But far from depicting a gloomy world with acerbic phrases, the author draws his words from the sincerity of introspection, humor and self-deprecation:
“Life is too important a thing to be taken seriously,” as author G. K. Chesterton wrote.
After 15 years in the trenches of documentary cinema from the Israeli-Palestinian border to the Untouchables in India and in the social realities of minorities in the United States, Joshua delocalizes his research laboratory on stage. In 2022, after a meeting with the incredible musicians who today form Mama Said, it is on the European music scene that Joshua is now establishing himself. Their first hard-hitting track and eponymous clip “Don’t go away mad” released in 2024 confirms the power of the emergence of this urban fusion experience.
Mama Said exudes a poetry of frenetic tension, an incessant flow in free fall, and improbable encounter between Eminem and Noir Désir.
Joshua Imeson | singer-song writer, guitar, lead singer
Anaïs Douat | cello, bass, singer
Guilhèm Artières | keyboard, trumpet
Victor Pol | drums
