Born in Barakaldo and Urruña. Does it deserve an explanation?
I was born in Barakaldo, but at the age of 2, my parents moved to Urrugne and I'm Urruña. I've always felt like this. My father is not Basque, he comes from Extremadura and my mother was a new Basque. I, on the other hand, was taken to the ikastola from a young age. It makes me happy, because it told me rap is easy for me, because my mother is a language, and yes, I have a mother tongue, but a mother tongue chosen, I would say. Because at home, in general, we didn't speak Basque. We were normally speaking in Spanish and I have studied Euskera in the ikastola.

Imagine, my first rap text I wrote it in Spanish! We used to listen to music in cassettes, and I had two or three rap cassettes. And in the rap cassettes, in the second part towards the end, sometimes there were bases upon which the listener was raping. I wrote my first letter on the basis of one of those cassettes. Today I wouldn't do it in any case in Spanish, I don't think I can write as well in Spanish or in French as in Euskera, but it was, my first text I wrote it in a bad Spanish.

What does rap look like?
It came to me very soon, but I don't know how. People think I first started singing and then raping, but it's the other way around. I started singing in bertsos when I was 12, and I discovered it before that rapa. I don't remember where those two or three cassettes came from. Verso violators, I am, Lunatic, Mafia K'1 Fry... I got the work from these groups, which I spent a lot of time turning around and around. Then I met the rap in Euskera, thanks to the Selektah Taldea group, and that was an explosion. I devoured the records first and second. That rap became closer to me, I felt very identified. Something moved inside me.

At that time, Gorka Rodríguez, our cousin, lived in our house for two years, and that was the second chalk. At home, we put a base and we raped, we made rhythms with cans of dog food ... It was a game. And from the game came 2zio.

And you created a rap group in the time of rock and metal --
yeah, yeah. It was a desert. In France, rap was exploiting, but my environment was nothing short of rapacious. Now these young people send me envy, but at the same time, that satellite being didn't live bad. It was like having your own space. "This is my thing."

Our time was rock and metal. System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine, Korn, Slipknot... And the first musical group I was 14 years old was a group of metals [irriz]. I made letters and sang. But it wasn't a song. I screamed, recited and half-raped. I have never thought I have a nice voice and I have never dared to sing completely. Then the Bertso has forced me to do that, but today I do not want my voice either. I've gotten used to it, yeah. So rap is a perfect formula for me. Because I can shape words, I can laugh, and I don't have to sing violently with a melody.

The only thing that lived in my surroundings as I rapa was Jo Olaskoaga, a member of the MAK, who became the 2nd beatmaker and now helps me in my individual project. He was the primary culprit I got under me. He came to me after listening to that collaboration with the MAK, saying that he was making bases and that we had to do something. He gave me the wings. I owe him a lot. It's always given me a lot of security, it's made me believe in my mind. That was the thing that was missing to start under rap.

Are there rap scenes in Euskal Herria?
No, it doesn't exist. We have played many times between 4-5 rock or punk groups. And it's not our place. We have even been emptied. Go up, paste, go down and get back to people. I think rap and electronics in general have not had a place in the Basque Country. I believe that the Basque Radical Rock, as it has favoured our country, has also come to hurt musically. That Basque music has inevitably been associated with this type of music, and what was extracted was not Basque music. It is a great paradox, because the music of the Rock Radical Vasco was made almost everything in Spanish...

The rap boom took place in France in the 1990s, by the year 2010 there was a lot of trap that is now reaching Euskal Herria. But the same traps are over 20 years old!

At first, I was frustrated with all of this. "Are we so bad?" ". Our music has never been consumed by a large audience. You have never taken it. I am now firmly convinced that ours will not be a success story. But I'll stay the same. Of course, I'm glad a song or a video clip is successful, but I'm not going to adapt my work to Youtube visits. That's my individual project. According to my wishes, ODEI is a project that I have created by making all the decisions myself.

What is the reason for this individual project?
What you don't know me may think I'm brave, that people don't fear me, that I don't feel embarrassed -- and it's the opposite. I have had to overcome very harsh embarrassment, and I still have many. It appears in my texts. But I've had to deal with gentleness, to sing and to sing. If so far the ODEI project has not been created, there were also fears.

I've spent many years trying to be right with everyone, to be politically correct ... And I've realized two things: first, it's impossible, and second, I don't want. It has harmed me more than good living according to the acceptance of others. And today is the day claiming that I can do ODEI and that I do not expect recognition from anyone. Those who really matter are there in my life and have always been there. As you spend your time, you go to the people you care about, you lose the people you want, and you realize how many times you've walked based on the people you don't know, without taking care of what you care for. So, don't you like my music? No problem, listen to something else!

How does rap reconcile the verse?
I’m as rapper as a bertsolari, but I don’t know if I’m at all… In the world of Rap I’ve often been labeled bertsolari. “This and this are rappers, and Odei is bertsolari, but he also rapa” And I have been in rap for a dozen years!

In the world of bertso, on the contrary, rap is seen as a curiosity, maybe. I attended a session and a man of about 60 years old told him later: "A very beautiful program, but rapa and leave those things slow." For some it seems that if you have to be a good bertsolari you just have to be bertsolari. But I've never identified myself with that pure, canonical bertsolari.

At first, I lived with frustration. Like Rapea, he needed the recognition of others. In the Osinalde Prize, for example, I wasn’t what the audience was asking for, but I wanted people in the small zortziko to be reified, and I was very clumsy… That wasn’t my mood! And of course, I've always been seen as a serious, deep bertsolari. I also have humor, but I don't have the humorous bertsolari label. And that really conditions you, from a very young age. Bertso is heard based on bertsolari. Without saying anything, we've said a lot about when we get to the micro. The same verse is not the same in everyone's mouth. And sometimes the image that people had of me didn't match what I had of myself. This will happen to us all, and in the case of the Bertsolaris women, let us not say anything.

As you mentioned the women bertsolaris, I have to say that you have been one of the few bertsolaris that I have heard praising for the book Ezetz Eztarritik… I
don’t know if I am happy… Feminism I feel close. And from my male privilege, and from another position, clearly, I've identified many of the sweating mechanisms that are also cited in my experiences. And I've often been identified with the concerns read to many Bertsolaris women. Listening has given me a lot to think.

And from the book Aurkarritik, what to say… There are people who tell their experiences. And those people have lived this way what they've lived. Know that you've lived through it and it's done. They're also not one or two bertsolaris. They're a lot. And before that, men can only shut up and listen. I am concerned that the criticism made in this respect is of very personal interest. I have come to think that many speak of fear of losing places or changing the situation, and of fear there are no objective readings or constructive criticisms.

What makes me angry is that, indeed, it is not they who are going to lose the seats. In any case, surely other men will be “substitutable” by women. Meanwhile, maybe you
-- I understand what you mean, and I would say it's partly true. But it's convenient to zoom back. Bertsolarism is in a phase of change, especially due to the work performed by women. The work has not been done by the association or by an external agent. They have done so. They're changing the machine by sweating. And I think we're going to value this even more in a few years' time. There is still a lot of work to be done, and you can see and hear lots of comments and activities outside the house. But things are changing thanks to the constant struggle of the women involved. "This is ours," they said, and they've taken it. And now it's up to the bertsos camp to ensure that place, so that they don't spend energy defending their rightful place.

I don't know how much it affected me. I used to have 70 places and now I have ten, yes, but there are many factors there. I could say that you have taken me places, for example. And I can think it's not just because that place was mine. But if I go back two steps and I see the picture of the plaza, I can understand that there are many phenomena in the interaction to make this happen.

It is true that it is sometimes difficult to assume the consequences of the seats. I have very few places today. But I don't live bad. It is true that sometimes that has made me think that perhaps I do not have much to offer. I recognise that this has made me feel very uncertain. I know it's not quite that way, but sometimes I find it very difficult to cope with this feeling. Believe in the value of my approach.

But what things are, I lived worse all of a sudden from having almost no places to playing a lot of places. From Xilaba's head of 2010 and 2012, he made ten seats. And then I was 70. And it was the same bertsolari. He had a terrible impostor syndrome. Half of the squares I came back crying thinking it was bad, it wasn't worth it ... Shade is often more comfortable than light.

This year you also participated in the bertsolaris championship of the Northern Basque Country, and let us say that you were left out of the head.
I've introduced myself to this xilaba because I signed up. I said it almost in public, which was my last competition. But I've gone back because, once the championship started, I've thought: "I like this." This too. And why do I leave it if I like it so much? It would not be serious for me if this year it did not come to the end, or did not enter the Basque Country. I think my last tournament is not far away, but I want the plaza and I want to keep singing.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Here's the one over there and the one over here.

In my childhood, adolescence and youth, I looked for my place. For the French I will always be Spanish and for the Spaniards French. And before, for the South, it was from the North and for the North. But this has changed. For those of you here I'm from here. But when I was a kid, I had a big complex. Not knowing Euskera by my father made me embarrassed, for example, in the bertso world. Even in the ball and in football, I was embarrassed that my parents didn't know French. It has gone with time, but I have spent many years trying to prove that I am Basque and from here. I've had a hard time capturing my site and not needing that external recognition."

Rapa euskera

"Are you talking about rapa in Basque? Why?" I have often been angered by this question. Doing rap in Basque is not a merit. Rapa is in Basque. We don't ask a rock group that anymore. Why in Basque? Because the most logical thing in the world is for me to speak in Basque. I came to ask the journalists why they asked me. Let's see if they thought the Basque was not enough for the raper, or if they had any characteristics that I didn't know were surprising that the Basque rap was made in the Basque country."

Musical creation in Ipar Euskal Herria

"I think there are usually not enough bets to get to know and hasten Iparralde's music in the South. There has been little focus here in the last fifteen years, seeing what our original and enriching offer is. Orbel, Habia, Lumi, Paxkal Irigoyen, Ztah, Diabolo Kiwi, Kuartz, Torheit... Detection of these types of groups is difficult. And knowing that in an area where there are 70,000 Vasco-speakers making proposals of this kind, I am concerned to pay so little attention. Now we have a look at the Region of Pamplona, Ibil Bedi, Chill Mafia, Tatxers... And I think it is necessary and I think it is good, but I do not understand how this has not been done either. I do not understand how the producers, producers and music management of Euskal Herria are no more daring. How many similar proposals are planned each year... I think programmers have a responsibility, to educate the public, to allow the listener to develop new aesthetic tastes. Well, in the txosnas we have heard the same music every year, in the big festivals there are always similar names in the afitxa... It seems to me contradictory to a people who want a revolution."

Working on the ODEI project

"We're doing a great job, especially in sound. The creation has been carried out for a few months. But now we're working on sound, very mildly. It's a big, long job, but I don't want to leave anything in the hands of others. And I'm learning a lot along the way. Some of the sounds here, those of Artehola, create a partnership with a great friend from Paris. He is a person who has worked with NTM, Kanye West... It's from another universe, and I like my project. I am glad that someone who does not know Basque wants to wager like this. If you don't know your tongue, you put your ear somewhere else, and if you want it, it's a sign that there's something above words."