French hip hop

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This article is about hip hop music from the country of France, and does not cover the hip hop scenes in other French speaking countries like Senegalese, Belgian and Canadian hip hop. For information on these countries, see world hip hop.

Music of France
Styles	classical - folk - popular: hip hop - jazz - rock
History (Timeline and Samples)
Awards	NRJ Music Awards - Victoires de la musique
Charts	IFOP
Festivals	Printemps de Bourges
Media
National anthem	"La Marseillaise"
Regional music
Alsace - Auvergne - Aquitaine - Pays Basque - Béarn - Brittany - Burgundy - Corsica - Gascony - Languedoc - Limousin - Lorraine - Picardy - Poitou - Provence - Rousillon
Overseas music
French Guiana - French Polynesia - Martinique and Guadeloupe - Mayotte - New Caledonia - Réunion - St. Pierre and Miquelon - Tahiti - Wallis and Futuna

Most French hip hop artists come from poor suburbs of Paris, Lyon, Lille, Le Havre, Strasbourg, Toulouse or Marseille. France has had a wide social safety net, meaning that poverty has rarely been as extreme in France's North and West African communities (where most of the artists have their roots); however, most performers come from HLM housing projects inhabited primarily by poor Africans and Arabs^[1].

The majority of French rappers are descended from African and DOM-TOM immigrants. Even though some of the pioneers like Lionel D and DJ Dee Nasty are not of African descent, Africans have dominated the music scene. However, contrarily to the USA, racially mixed groups have always been very common in France. Many of the most important rappers in France are Caucasian (Kool Shen (of Portuguese and French descent), Akhenaton (of Italian descent), Diam's (of Cypriot and French descent), & Sinik (Of Kabylian and French descent)). Many are also immigrants from former French colonies who have moved to France for education or a better life. MC Solaar, who was born in Senegal, released his first CD in 1991. Within France, the two cities with the largest hip hop scene are Marseille and Paris (the majority of French rappers come from the suburbs of Paris.).

1 History
2 See also
3 External links
4 References
5 Notes

[edit] History

Hip hop first appeared in France in 1979, just as the genre was achieving some success in the United States. Its popularity was due to the large African presence in France. By 1982, a number of hip hop radio stations had appeared, including Rapper Dapper Snapper, and the future star DJ Dee Nasty made his first appearance. That same year saw the first major hip hop concert, the New York City Rap Tour, sponsored by Europe 1 and featuring Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmixer DST, Fab 5 Freddy, Mr Freeze and the Rock Steady Crew.

By 1983, hip hop was a notable part of the French music scene. Paname City Rappin (1984) by DJ Dee Nasty was the first album released^{[dubious — see talk page]}; it was a funky record^{[dubious — see talk page]}, released on Nasty's own Funkzilla record label. The middle of the decade also saw the rise of performers like Johnny Go, Lionel D, Destroy Man and Richy, as well as Dee Nasty's influential Le Deenastyle radio show on Radio Nova. At the end of the 1980s, Afrika Bambaataa's Universal Zulu Nation was well-established in France, which was home to the second largest chapter of the organization (after the Bronx), which promoted black unity and brotherhood. However, in the early 1990s, a series of controversies wracked the organization, and it ceased to exist.

The first major star of French hip hop was MC Solaar, born Claude M'Barali in Dakar, Senegal. He moved to France in 1970 and lived in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. His 1991 Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo, was a major hit. The European Music Office's report on Music in Europe claimed that the French language was well-suited for rapping, and that MC Solaar's popularity came about "probably because of his very open and positive attitude, his strong literary talents and humour". ^{[citation needed]} He set many records, including being the first French hip hop recording to go platinum.

Following MC Solaar's breakthrough, two broad styles emerged within the French hip hop scene; artists such as Solaar, Dee Nasty, and Alliance Ethnik championed a more mellow, sanguine style, while more hardcore performers such as Assassin and Suprême NTM assumed a more aggressive aesthetic. Many such artists found themselves at the heart of controversies over lyrics that were seen as glorifying the murder of police officers and other crimes, similar to outcries over violent thuggish lyrics in American gangsta rap.

Through the nineties, the music grew to become one of the most popular genres in France; in 1997, IAM's release "L'école du Micro d'Argent" sold more than 1 million discs, with NTM shifting more than 700,000 copies of their final album "Supreme NTM". The group went their separate ways in 2000.

In the 2000s, similar to developments in the USA, a gap has begun to emerge in French hip hop between artists seen as having sold out, belonging to the mainstream, and more credible, innovative independent artists.

[edit] See also

List of French hip hop artists

[edit] External links

Yo La La! An English-language podcast on French hip-hop.
RAP2K.COM RAP2K is the 1st and ultimate French Rap and Hip Hop

resource.

Feature article exploring French rap from CLUAS.com.

[edit] References

Krümm, Philippe and Jean-Pierre Rasle. "Music of the Regions". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East, pp 103-113. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0
The Metamorphoses of French Hip Hop. Kiasma. Retrieved on August 23, 2005.
Underground & Street Rap in France. adi. Retrieved on March 27, 2006.
Hip Hop and Rap in Europe. Soundscapes. Retrieved on August 23, 2005.
La Danse sensuelle du Hip Hop Français. Lumpen. Retrieved on August 23, 2005.
French Hip Hop History. Hip Hop Congress. Retrieved on August 23, 2005.
MC Hip Hop: The Music Tout a la Mode. Wine X. Retrieved on August 23, 2005.