The album was conceived in 3 months during the summer of 2011. In an interview with Canal Street, Nessbeal explained that he was preparing an "Operation Desert Storm" with his producer Skread. This operation consisted of releasing three consecutive albums: Orelsan's Le chant des sirènes in September, Sélection naturelle in November and Isleym's Où ça nous mène later on.[3] Skread would therefore provide majority of the production for the three albums.
In the same interview, Nessbeal revealed the origin of the title of his fourth album.
[I named my album] Sélection naturelle (Natural selection) for the era in which we live. [...] It is an apocalyptic era where man has become worse than an animal. I am a fan of National Geographic. I really like the reports on the animals, watching how an anthill develops, or, for example, when a [female] crocodile gives birth to 6 [offspring] and only two of them manage to survive. [...] That's just to say that we have to survive in natural selection. I am a young lion cub and I have to survive in this urban jungle.
