French hip hop

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French hip-hop movement describes a genre of music imported from the USA in 1981/1982 and spread in the newly licensed private radios libres . The first French hip-hop record was Paname City Rappin by Dee Nasty in 1984 . The style made it to public television in 1984/85 with 42 broadcasts on TF1 . The French rap market is currently the second largest in the world in terms of sales.

history

The first groups formed in the 1980s. However, these were strongly based on US models. Hip-hop and rap were perceived as a fashion wave and quickly ebbed away. Only since the early 1990s has there been a scene of its own again, which is more distinct from the USA and is mainly rooted in the banlieues in France .

In 1990 the first rap sampler Rapattitude appeared in a larger edition and was sold a total of 40,000 times. MC Solaar and IAM were the first successful rappers.

MC Solaar was also the first rapper to receive the national music award Victoire de la musique in 1992 . Today the scene is based on artistic Poles such as Suprême NTM in the north of Paris or 500 One in the south of Paris. Important centers of the scene are Paris (Suprême NTM, La Cliqua ), Marseille (IAM), Toulouse ( KDD ), Strasbourg (NAP) and Brittany ( Manau ).

In contrast to most American role models, the scene and most of the groups are deliberately multicultural and not determined by ethnicity. They often describe themselves as Black-Blanc-Beur groups . Nevertheless, today the greatest French rap artists are mostly colored people with a migration background from North and West Africa and the DOM-TOM areas ; But also some 'whites' of French or other origins became known, such as Rocking Squat from the group Assassin or the rapper Diam’s . They are based on so-called message or knowledge rap , which developed on the east coast of the USA parallel to gangsta rap on the west coast.

Everyday life in the banlieue was first described in the French rap songs: Unemployment, violence, rejection and lack of opportunities, racism, drug trafficking and criminal acquisitions as well as criticism of the police were the main themes. Soon, however, French history, especially colonial history and the exploitation of fathers in the economic boom after the Second World War, was discussed. The current validity of the republican values ​​of equality, freedom and brotherhood were also discussed, with equality for immigrants and French with a migration background being admonished.

This dispute contributed to the identification. In France, rappers usually have a common horizon of experience, they are excluded from society and have hardly any prospects in life. Rap therefore offers them a symbolic, but also material development space. This importance of rap for one's own life is repeatedly addressed in the songs. B. in "Petite Banlieusarde" (in: Dans ma Bulle , 2006) by Diam’s :

«Je fais du rap pour me libérer du mal, /… / Le rap m'a percée au plus profond de moi tu le ressens, / Moi je n'ai que ça, j'ai pas le bac /… / Mon rap, c'est ma raison de vivre, c'est ma raison de dire au monde / Que quand on veut on y arrive, malgré les zones d'ombre / Et je suis contente si un jeune s'en sort »

“I rap to get rid of all evils /… /. Rap hit me at the bottom of myself, you can feel it. I only have him, no high school diploma /… / My rap gives me a reason to live. "

The telling of one's own life story or the retelling of history therefore opens up not only a fictional, but also an actual scope for action. This explains the success of rap as a technique of self-discovery that is not only, but above all, adopted and developed by marginalized or socially disadvantaged population groups.

In the early days the lyrics were harmless and of a rather plaintive nature, today they are becoming more and more self-confident, accusatory, but also more aggressive, more sweary and sometimes even call for violence against the " establishment " . The former French interior minister and later president Nicolas Sarkozy made lyrics of this kind partly responsible for the unrest in the Paris suburbs in 2005 . Some rappers have been sued by right-wing conservative politicians, albeit for songs that were several years ago. The proceedings were discontinued. A text censorship for French rap songs was also planned by law. This project was also given up again. The close connection between freedom of expression and chanson in France had already led to public protests in 1996 when Joey Starr was convicted of a rap song by the NTM group. At the time, a right-wing politician had also brought charges. In 2005 the attempt to find a scapegoat for the unrest subsided due to a lack of evidence and due to the already tense atmosphere in the banlieues.

Even if some French rappers are inspired by American gangsta rap, the so-called hardcore rap, which is mainly about crime and violence as well as daily experiences and representation in the districts of the banlieues, France is giving way like before groups that carry on the committed message rap. They are characterized by a pronounced metaphorical use of language, which repeatedly leads to misunderstandings or is used by politics and the media public to convey a negative image of rapeseed. Quantitative language analyzes have shown that numerous metaphors are used in the sense of cognitive concepts. So it is by no means just about rhetorical design, but about transferring experiences. In this way, negative experiences can be processed, as Joey Starr explains:

"Notre subversion vient de ce qu'on a subi. C'est ce qui nous a appris à nous servir d'un stylo comme d'un couteau »

“Our subversion is explained by what we have experienced. It taught us to use the pen like a knife. "

- Joey Starr

The word field on the subject of violence is used in a differentiated manner: on the one hand, it is about words that express the experience of violence; on the other hand to those of the active exercise of violence. The latter are combined with another word field, that of verbal expression, writing and poetry. In keeping with the hip-hop philosophy formulated by Afrika Bambaataa of creatively transforming negative energies into positive energies, the rappers use this link to turn their words into (physically) non-violent weapons and assert themselves while reducing aggression non-violently. This becomes clear in numerous equally poetic and original formulations: “assaut lyrical” (Faf LaRage: C'est ma cause, 1999), “boxe avec les mots” (Ärsenik, Quelque gouttes suffisent) or “un microphone killeuze” (Black Barbie , "La rein du 93", on: Black Barbie Style 2008) u. at the

What fades into the background in many reports and studies is the active scene of women rapping in France. They were there from the start, albeit in fewer numbers, and “they respond to the construction of rapeseed as a male domain”. The rap compilation Lab 'Elles came out in 1995 and in 1999 Lady Laistee, Diam's, Bams and Princess Aniès released their first albums.

Rappers and crews such as B. Booba, Rohff, Mc Solaar, IAM (where, for example, the album L'École du micro d'argent alone has sold over 1.5 million times), Supreme NTM, Sinik and 113 have each sold millions of Albums, which is why many artists made their breakthrough far outside the French border (e.g. in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland and other French-speaking countries) and often worked with well-known American rappers and producers such as Dr. Dre , Game , Wu-Tang Clan , Mobb Deep , Nas u. vm working together.

Well-known rappers

See also

literature

  • Dietmar Hüser: Vive la RAPublique - messages and images from a “different banlieue” . In: Historical Anthropology. Culture, society, everyday life . 1999/2, pp. 271-295.
  • Dietmar Hüser: RAPublican synthesis. A contemporary French history of popular music and political culture . Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2004.
  • Dietmar Hüser: Black - Blanc - Beur. Youth and music, immigration and integration in the suburbs of French metropolitan areas . In: Frankreich-Jahrbuch , 10. Leske and Budrich, Opladen 1996, pp. 181–202
  • Daniel Tödt: From the planet Mars. Rap in Marseille and the imaginary of the city . Lit Verlag, Vienna 2012
  • Eva Kimminich : Autobiography and Authenticity: Self (er) narration and reality sketches in song lyrics by French rappers . In: Brigitte Jirku, Marion Schulz (Ed.): Performativity in the autobiographical discourse of women (Inter-Lit, 12). Frankfurt 2012, ISBN 978-3-631-60610-0 .
  • Eva Kimminich: I-Stories and Histories. Rap and Slam: Working on Identity, Community and History . Yearbook for European Ethnology , 3rd volume, 6th ed. Görres-Gesellschaft Paderborn. Ferdinand Schöningh, Munich 2011 ISBN 9783506773302 pp. 173-196 in chap. Narrative communication
  • Eva Kimminich: Black Barbie & Co. Migration and racism experiences in the lyrics of French rappers . In: Freiburg gender studies, 25: Migration, mobility, gender . 2011, pp. 75-92
  • Eva Kimminich: Sound - Power - Music. Popular rap songs and French society . In: Dietmar Hüser (Ed.): France's Empire strikes back. Social Change, Colonial Debate and Migration Cultures in the Early 21st Century . kassel university press , Kassel 2012, pp. 331–346.
  • Eva Kimminich: Rap Attitudes - Rap Attacks - RaPublikaner . In: Winfried Wehle (Ed.): Poetry of the 20th century . Narr, Tübingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-86057-910-7 , pp. 409-456
  • Eva Kimminich: Légal où illégal? Anthologie du rap français . Reclam, Stuttgart 2002 ISBN 978-3-8322-7111-4
  • Eva Kimminich: The therapeutic potential of hip hop culture . In: Nahlah Saimeh (ed.): Motivation and resistance - challenges in the penal system . Materials from the 24th Eickelborn Conference on Forensic Psychiatry, March 4-6, 2009. pp. 339–350.
  • Eva Kimminich: Rap: More Than Words. Narrative strategies and body communication in French and Senegalese rap. Peter Lang, Frankfurt 2004 ISBN 978-3-631-51961-5
    • including this: (Hi) story, rap story and 'possible worlds'. Pp. 233-267
  • Eva Kimminich: Citizens or Strangers? Exclusion and cultural autonomy in the banlieue of France . Archive for Social History , 46th Integration and Fragmentation in the European City . JHW Dietz , Bonn 2006, pp. 505-538

Web links

  • Volltext Dietmar Hüser: Pop-Stars : Provincial notables and local intellectuals in the media age. On the social function of committed songs, in The Intellectual and the Mandarin. For Hans Manfred Bock . Ed. François Beilecke, Katja Marmetschke. Series: Intervalle, 8th Kassel University Press, 2005 ISBN 9783899581348 pp. 185–198 (reference only to France)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eva Kimminich: Illégal ou Légal. Anthology you rap . Reclam, Stuttgart 2000.
  2. ↑ Dietmar Hüser: RAPublican synthesis. A contemporary French history of popular music and political culture . Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2004.
  3. ↑ See Eva Kimminich: (Hi) story, rap story and 'possible worlds' narrative strategies and body communication in French and Senegalese rap . In: dies .: Rap: More Than Words . Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. a. Pp. 233-267.
  4. ↑ Andreas Margara: Censorship for French rappers? November 30, 2005, archived from the original on September 27, 2007 ; accessed on October 3, 2016 .
  5. ↑ See Dietmar Hüser 1997, pp. 181–202.
  6. ↑ Eva Kimminich: Rap Attitudes - Rap Attacks - RaPublikaner . In: Winfried Wehle (Ed.): Poetry of the 20th century . Narr, Tübingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-86057-910-7 , pp. 438-444.
  7. ↑ Starr in Le monde , April 26, 1998, quoted from Eva Kimminich: Rap Attitudes - Rap Attacks - RaPublikaner . In: Winfried Wehle (Ed.): Poetry of the 20th century . Narr, Tübingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-86057-910-7 , p. 439.
  8. ↑ Eva Kimminich: Black Barbie & Co. Migration and racism experiences in song lyrics by French rappers . In: Freiburg gender studies , 25: Migration, mobility, gender . 2011, pp. 75-92.
  9. ↑ In 2017 the author is a contributor in the section "Youth and Subcultures" of a "German Society for Semiotics " section of the DGS