After the release of their second album, the Marseille hip-hop group IAM embarked on an extensive tour over the next two years, building a solid audience niche and signing with the newly formed Delabel label, which allows them to work with a larger budget than in the past. The group recorded the album in two months in Aix-en-Provence together with New York producer Nick Sansano, engineer of Public Enemy and producer of Sonic Youth, and mixed the project in New York. IAM's third album contains 40 tracks (13 skits) and 2.5 hours of music, it's one of the very first double albums in hip-hop. Faf Larage and Def Bond are the only guests on the two CDs, the production is carried out entirely by the group and Nick Sansano.
The music abandons the heavy sound of the Bomb Squad, bringing jazz and funk melodies to lighten the harsh drums. The guys behind the keyboards do a phenomenal job on these two LPs and the group's emcees write lyrics that address numerous themes, from personal to other socio-conscious topics, on political tracks, against racism, on crime, on drugs, up to more relaxed, light-hearted and festive passages, with various humorous interludes. Akhenathon and Shurik'n's playing is brilliant, with a flow that always sounds fresh and uplifting hardcore rapping. Despite an impressive length, the album remains coherent and spectacular throughout, rare quality for a double album in hip-hop even on the other side of the Atlantic and which therefore ranks among the best double CDs ever in its musical genre.
Delabel searches for the promotional single for the album and in the end IAM decides on "Je danse le mia", which has a great success in the summer of 1994, it reached number one singles in France and went gold, becoming the second best-selling single of the year. IAM gains popularity at home and is awarded group of the year. The double album is hailed as a classic, it's an unmissable listen for every hip-hop fan. 8.5/10.
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