be blessed, be back.

... so was the name of the first track on DJ Mehdi's "(The Story of) Espion" album. But Mehdi won't be back. 

I've been following his career for quite some time now, and the news of his death had me devastated. It's like I grew up with his music in my ears, buying his underground (or not) stuff and rejoicing at every new release. To me, Mehdi's been inspiring. I've dreamed of his Espionnage imprint becoming huge and dropping countless projects, after I heard "Espion Le EP", which became a personal favorite with its original design and sound. But it didn't ; it stayed quiet instead. Mehdi was a discreet guy. Kind of in the shadow, even when his childhood friends gained success thanks to his musical skills.

It's like he lived several lives, switching from the most hardcore rap as a teenager to the hypest electro as a grown up, from the hardware MPC 1000 to the software Logic. In a way, he followed the footsteps of mentors Boom Bass and Zdar (aka Cassius). Mehdi felt like he belonged to the hip hop movement, and evolved so graciously in the world's biggest clubs as one of the most entertaining and skillfull DJ's. 

As a listener, I've enjoyed his rap productions as a youngster ; he was able to take rap to unexplored territories like no one else. I've enjoyed his electro mixes also. Fate had me randomly recently fall on two of his last mixes (one for the Tsugi podcast, the other posted on September 9th by Mehdi himself on his blog). Everything he delivered was so elegant. That's the word I've always had in mind when thinking about Mehdi's production.
Strangely enough, in February, abcdrduson posted a mix of Mehdi's tracks by Bachir and Slurg that sounded like a tribute. 

Since the news of his death surfaced, everyone can acknowledge the amount of friends and fans Mehdi had, famous or not. Although extremely quiet about it, Mehdi was a huge, but underrated, asset of the music industry, being friend with the likes of A-Trak, Daft Punk, Cassius, the whole Ed Banger crew of course, Chromeo, Drake, Steve Aoki, Pharrell, Peanut Butter Wolf, and of course most of the French hip hop and electro relevant scenes etc etc etc.

As inspiring as he was, it would only be justice that a flood of tributes would landed on the web in the next months, in a J Dilla fashion. J Dilla whom Mehdi tributed with his cult "Loukoums" beat tape... 

For educational purposes, I've assembled a compilation of a few of Mehdi's productions, in 4 parts. Links in the comments. 

Thank you Mehdi.

Edit : a few sweet links following Mehdi's death. 
- Dave-One, of Chromeo, wrote an emotional note about his friendship with the one he calls Memed. 
- Stones Throw posted the now legendary beat-tape "Loukoums".
- Dr. Kwest, from Belgium, posted a tribute mix on Mixcloud. 
- Feadz, a long-time friend of Mehdi's, naturally made a tribute mix.
- The newest track by Carte Blanche, "The Molecules" incidentally leaked this week. 
- Yue Wu's own version of the writing on the wall, dedicated to Mehdi. 
- A-Trak followed his brother Dave by writing his own thoughts about DJ Mehdi. He also titled his last remix, for Rapture, "How Deep Is Your Love ? (A-Trak Dub aka Dub For Mehdi)". You can download it on Soundcloud.