Our campaign for the freshly dropped M89 needed a partner who captured the zeitgeist of right now. Rap, trap and hip-hop artist Di-Meh is massive in France and Switzerland, and his popularity is growing – it’s not just his earworm-inducing, up-to-the-minute beats that people love, it’s also his streetstyle and attitude. We knew a collab with him would be perfect to promote French clothing and footwear company Lacoste.

Now 26, Di-Meh has been on the mic for years. Born Mehdi Belkaïd in Geneva, he joined the Genevan rap collective 13 Sarkastick at a young age. He arrived in Paris as a teenager and met other artists, forming collabs with Népal and 75ème Session. His reputation soon exploded across France, and he’s now big in both the French and Swiss music scenes, with his renown and popularity constantly on the rise. He’s so current, capturing the spirit of now so perfectly, that Titolo knew the love and respect listeners have for him would be perfect for the Lacoste M89 campaign.

We shot Di-Meh in and around a sleek, metallic olive-green BMW – cars often feature in his music videos so this scene worked well for him. His clothing and footwear style in his videos is forthright – bold, bouncy, bodacious, yet still smooth, and perfectly melded together like his sounds. For this shoot we chose classic chinos, a white roll-neck and a black branded Lacoste V-neck knit sweater. The M89 Lacoste sneakers, with their slight 80s vibe, are perfect for this look.