IAM (band)

I AM
IAM at the Fête de l'Humanité 2014
General information
origin	Marseille , France
Genre (s)	French hip-hop , conscious rap
founding	1989
Website	www.iam.tm.fr
Current occupation
MC	Philippe "Akhenaton" Fragione
DJ	Eric "Khéops" Mazel
MC	Geoffroy "Shurik'N" Mussard
DJ	Pascal "Imhotep" Perez
Manager	François "Kephren" Mendy
former members
MC	Malek "Freeman" Brahimi (1989-2008)

I AM

IAM are a French hip hop group from Marseille . Together with MC Solaar, they were the first commercially successful French rappers, but they remained deeply rooted in the scene. The band name stands for both the English expression I am and Imperial Asiatic Men ("Imperial Asian Men"), Indépendantistes Autonomes Marseillais ("Independent supporters of independence from Marseille") or Invasion Arrivant de Mars ("Invasion of Mars"; Mars is in their lyrics often a metaphor for Marseille).

The group's story begins in 1984 when Eric Mazel (Kheops) and Philippe Fragione (Akhenaton) breakdancing together as a Lively Crew . Until 1988/89, new members were added from their wider circle of friends until IAM existed in its current formation: Akhenaton (producer, MC), Imhotep (producer, DJ), Kheops (producer, DJ), Shurik'N (MC) and Kephren (Tour Manager).

Her first tape appeared in 1989, her first record, immediately on a major label, De La Planète Mars sold over 100,000 copies. The group members, who are of Algerian, Italian and Black African descent, played a style that was heavily influenced by music from the Middle East and Egypt. With their 1997 album L'École Du Micro D'Argent , they not only set a musical standard for French hip-hop that is still valid today, but also sold over a million copies.

Members

• Imhotep (also Kif-Kif, Tonton), bourgeois: Pascal Perez (born 1960 in Algiers ) is the musical architect of the group and creates the majority of the beats.
• Shurik'N (also Shurik'N Chang Ti, Jo l'Indien, le Serval), civil: Geoffroy Mussard, of Malagasy origin, was born in 1966 in Marseille . Next to Akhenaton, he is the group's second most important songwriter and rapper. As an avid martial artist he is very fond of the influences of the Far East. Its name Shurik'N means throwing star in Japanese . Shurik'N is also active as a solo artist under the same name.
• Akhenaton (also Chill, Sentenza), civil: Philippe Fragione, was born in 1968 in Marseille . He is the lead head of the group who reads most of the texts. Since 1995 he has been extremely successful in several solo projects and supports regional offspring such as the Fonky Family . He also worked as an actor in the film Comme Un Aimant , wrote the music with Bruno Coulais and also tried his hand at scriptwriting. Akhenaton converted to Islam a few years ago.
• Freeman (also Tuco, Malek Sultan), civil: Abdelmalek Brahimi, with roots in Algeria , was born in 1972 in Marseille . Active as a dancer in the early years of IAM, he began rapping lyrics with his fourth album Revoir Un Printemps at the latest . Freeman started his solo career in 1999 and has released three albums so far, L'Palais de justice , Mars eyes and L'espoir d'un (C) rêve ". In 2008 Freeman left the group IAM.
• Kheops (also Blondin), bourgeois: Eric Mazel, with Spanish roots, was born in 1966 in Marseille . He's the group's DJ.
• Kephren, bourgeois: François Mendy, of Senegalese origin, was born in Paris in 1968 . In the early years of the group he was the dancer, later he took over the management of the label Côté Obscur , where IAM recorded some CDs, and is now active as a tour manager for IAM.

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		FR	BE W	CH
1991	... de la planète Mars	FR- gold FR	-	-
1995	Ombre est lumière	FR195 platinum (1 week)FR	-	-	Chart entry only in 2014
1997	L'école du micro d'argent	FR3 diamond (209 weeks)FR	BE W5 (... weeks) BE W	CH- platinum CH	ten additional songs on the limited CD
2003	Revoir un printemps	FR1 × 2 Double gold (35 weeks)FR	BE W1 (17 weeks) BE W	CH2 gold (9 weeks)CH	three additional songs and two instrumentals on the limited CD
2005	Live au Dôme de Marseille	FR97 (6 weeks) FR	BE W63 (3 weeks) BE W	-	Live album
2007	Season 5	FR2 gold (29 weeks)FR	BE W4 (20 weeks) BE W	CH15th gold (10 weeks)CH
2008	IAM 20	-	BE W96 (1 week) BE W	-
2009	Galaxy	-	BE W84 (3 weeks) BE W	-
2013	Arts Martiens	FR1 gold (29 weeks)FR	BE W4 (36 weeks) BE W	CH4 (14 weeks) CH
	I AM	FR10 (15 weeks) FR	BE W25 (21 weeks) BE W	CH25 (4 weeks) CH
2017	Revolution	FR3 gold (29 weeks)FR	BE W3 (28 weeks) BE W	CH5 (8 weeks) CH
2019	Yasuke	FR8 (16 weeks) FR	BE W19 (12 weeks) BE W	CH12 (4 weeks) CH

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More albums

• 1990: Concept (cassette)
• 1993: Ombre est lumière (double album)

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		FR	BE W	CH
2004	Anthology (1991-2004)	FR- gold FR	BE W31 (14 weeks) BE W	CH43 (8 weeks) CH
2013	Best Of 2013 - 16 classiques	FR73 (2 weeks) FR	BE W51 (11 weeks) BE W	-
	L'école du micro d'argent 2013	FR45 (51 weeks) FR	-	-

More albums

• 2006: IAM Platinum

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		FR	BE W	CH
1994	Je danse le mia ombre est lumière	FR1 gold (40 weeks)FR	-	-
	Le feu ombre est lumière	FR17 (10 weeks) FR	-	-
1995	Une femme seule / Sachet blanc Ombre est lumière	FR30 (7 weeks) FR	-	-
1997	L'empire du côté obscur L'école du micro d'argent	FR14th gold (17 weeks)FR	BE W31 (5 weeks) BE W	-
	Nés sous la même étoile L'école du micro d'argent	FR41 (4 weeks) FR	BE W38 (1 week) BE W	-
1998	Petit frère L'école du micro d'argent	FR50 (11 weeks) FR	-	-
	L'école du micro d'argent L'école du micro d'argent	FR84 (7 weeks) FR	-	-
	Independenza	FR19 (25 weeks) FR	BE W18 (8 weeks) BE W	-
2003	Noble Art Revoir un printemps	FR34 (17 weeks) FR	-	CH81 (4 weeks) CH	feat. Method Man & Redman
2004	Revoir un printemps Revoir un printemps	FR58 (6 weeks) FR	-	-
	Nous Revoir un printemps	-	-	CH94 (1 week) CH	feat. Kayna Samet
	Stratégie d'un pion Revoir un printemps	FR69 (7 weeks) FR	-	-
2005	Où va la vie?	FR24 (17 weeks) FR	-	CH68 (4 weeks) CH	feat. Moïse
2013	Les raisons de la colère Arts Martiens	FR77 (4 weeks) FR	-	-
	Spartiate Spirit Arts Martiens	FR184 (1 week) FR	-	-
	CQFD IAM	FR107 (2 weeks) FR	-	-
2017	IAM 2017	FR87 (1 week) FR	-	-
	Monnaie de singe Rêvolution	FR47 (2 weeks) FR	-	-
2019	Self Made Men Yasuke	FR199 (1 week) FR	-	-	feat. Psy 4 de la rime

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Video albums

• 2002: Live Au Dock Des Suds - Marseille (Live concert recordings by Akhenaton, Chiens De Paille, Psy 4 De La Rime and others)
• 2004: Stratégie Tour - Live Au Dôme Marseille (FR:× 2Double platinum )
• 2004: Au Cœur D'IAM - Genèse d'un Album ( description of the development of the new album "Revoir Un Printemps") (FR:gold)

literature

• Daniel Tödt: From the planet Mars. Rap in Marseille and the imaginary of the city . Lit Verlag, Vienna 2012. ISBN 978-3-643-50360-2 .

swell

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: FR BEW CH
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Awards for music sales: CH FR1 FR2

Web links

• Official Homepage (French)
• Interview with Akhenaton about "Soldats de Fortune"
• IAM at Discogs (English)