Mach-Hommy: Pray for Haiti
Mach-Hommy began wearing masks before the pandemic. The Newark rapper has a similar mystique to MF Doom, always covering his face with a Haitian flag bandana.
His latest project, Pray for Haiti, is brilliant but complex as Mach presents his Haitian heritage, art, fashion, and violence. He creatively uses storytelling to challenge our imagination and understanding of the world.
To help examine the album, I chatted with Professor Skye Paine. Professor Skye is an Associate Professor of French at SUNY Brockport in New York. He reviewed the album on his YouTube page — Professor Skye’s Record Review — which beautifully examines Mach-Hommy through the lens of history. He unpacks Haitian history, its importance, and how it is present in Mach-Hommy’s work. Last week, we hopped on Zoom to further discuss Pray for Haiti, Mach-Hommy, and his connection to history.
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Noah Lyons: Before we discuss Mach-Hommy, I think it is worth giving readers the context I got in your video. What led you to create a class called “Haiti: The Most Important Country in the World”?
Professor Skye: I felt like I had to create it. My specialty is in 17th Century French theatre, which I know is pretty far away. I listened to a podcast about the Haitian Revolution and had a class on Haitian Literature. The more that I learned about the history of Haiti, I realized that our understanding of the New World is incomplete if we don’t study Haiti.
It’s this bizarre thing where every time America got lucky or something went well, something would go terrible in Haiti. They are these weird parallel histories. Usually, it just boils down to race because Haiti is primarily Black. They were disregarded and treated poorly by the whole world.
NL: Growing up, I conceptualized Haiti as this far-away country without realizing it was close to the US. I never thought about how our history and Haiti were so intertwined.
PS: Yeah, we were the two countries that broke free from our colonial oppressors. There is a similarity between these two nations who did something improbable — of course, what Haiti did was more improbable because they were not gentry landowners. We both took a lot of meaning from the French revolution and the ideas of freedom.
We were the two countries that did it, but America was allowed and encouraged to thrive. The second Haiti formed any autonomy they had to pay a debt for France to acknowledge its freedom. They had to pay for the military to stop people from invading them and pay France just to exist.
NL: Pivoting to Mach-Hommy, what about his use of history stood out when listening to the album?
PS: The thing that makes Haitians different is how well they know their history. They live their history and take pride in it because it includes a slave revolt that succeeded.
The relationship between history and modern-day is difficult to disassociate from in Haitian culture and people of Haitian descent. On the album, he quotes Dessalines, a great general, about killing them all. He includes these little bits where people discuss the nature of Creole or the difficulty of the borders. It seems as though he is really trying. I sense the pain that he is trying to get people to understand him.
NL: The “Kreyol” skit stands out in that regard. Is there any insight into how he used French and Creole? I found it fascinating how he mixed it in along with his rapping in English.
PS: That’s my favorite question! I didn’t get attached to French when I first started studying it. It wasn’t until I discovered French hip-hop in ’97 that I realized there is good stuff here. France is actually the second-biggest producer of hip-hop in the world, they have an amazing culture over there, and it’s so different.
Wherever hip-hop is, it’s the voice of the voiceless. It doesn’t have to be by one person. Ultimately, anybody can access these tools. In France, it started with these first and second-generation immigrants who weren’t treated as being French.
What I find fascinating about Mach-Hommy and rappers connected with their immigrant roots, is that it’s the same story being told in France and America. You have to fight to prove you have the right to exist.
NL: Constantly fighting to show that you have value.
PS: Yeah, language is one of the main ways French rappers created their own community. You can only understand them if you share their experience. There will be a couple of words in French, some in English, Arabic, and then some slang from Paris. These people are constantly alienated, felt not as good, and put on the outside of society. Just using language can do that.
That’s what Mach-Hommy does in the “Kreyol” skit. I would never pretend to understand more than three words because Creole and French are totally different. Too often, our first reaction to something we don’t understand is to dislike it. I take the viewpoint that I’m being shown something and sit with my ignorance.
NL: Wyclef’s debut album The Carnival does a lot of similar things. It starts with him rapping in English and ends in French and Creole.
PS: Great album, very underrated! Wyclef has been somehow forgotten even though he is really important to hip-hop. He is doing exactly that, saying who he is. You’re forced to acknowledge people’s existence.
In America, we are very imperfect with our representation of non-white people but are further along than much of the world. Before hip-hop came, there was no representation of non-white people in French popular culture. Thanks to hip-hop it’s everywhere. Hip-hop is the number one music in France because it’s such a powerful force. Now people have to confront the reality of what France is.
NL: When I first listened to “Kriminel” I was struck by Mach Hommy’s use of tone. What made it one of your favorite tracks on the project?
PS: With Mach Hommy, what draws me is how amazing he is at putting words together. I compared him to Ghostface Killah in that way. It’s the ease of his voice as he sings, it’s so relaxed, and the rapping is precise.
After I released the video, Haitian viewers said the song is about how Haitians are perceived as criminals, but the state is the real criminal.
NL: I had difficulty describing Mach-Hommy to friends because his style is so unique. Your Ghostface comparison feels right because they are both relentless.
PS: Ghostface is one or two for me all-time. It’s not always what he says but the way he says it.
NL: Their aggressive style can sometimes do them a disservice. They move so quickly it’s easy to miss what they say.
PS: Yeah, you have to listen to it again. Between the Creole and the slang, it’s so layered. That’s how the Ghostface comparison started! I thought, who are the hardest rappers for people to understand that they should work to understand?
NL: Do you recommend any French rappers to listen to? I had no idea the hip-hop scene in France was so big.
PS: The best place to start is IAM. I have a couple of videos that break down their 1997 album, which actually got me to study French. It’s often considered to be the best French rap album of all time. Another group from around that time was NTM.
In France, they had a switch to a more community-minded hop-hop just like we had. That shift happened in 2000, what we call conscious hip-hop is a lot more mainstream there. There are more expectations of poetic prowess and social consciousness in rap which makes it fun.
