A very nice "take away show", by La Blogothèque, featuring favourite rap singer Oxmo Puccino, with his news style, mixing rap with French chanson. Featuring french cellist Vincent Segal. A song about Paris ("Panam"), sung in Meknes, Morroco.
Dominique A - Rendez nous la lumière (Vers la lueur)
And three rap songs.
A tribute to mothers by Guizmo. Guizmo - Maman STP (La Banquiz)
A political song, by Kerry James. Kerry James - Lettre à la République (92-2012)
And to finish, a single by Sexion d'Assaut, still toping French charts. I can't say i like it, but for this song has been watched 19 millions times on youtube... Also a song about the mothers...
A few nice songs from 2012.
I don't have much time to update the blog lately.
One of the most awaited album of the year, by Zebda, 10 years after their last album.
Zebda - (Second Tour, 2012)
Some rock : Dionysos - Cloudman (Bird'n' Roll, 2012)
The songwriter of Zaz, in a humorous and political song about the clichés and prejudices that French from Arab descents are victims.
Kerredine Soltani - Je veux m'intégrer(2012)
A rap track by Guizmo, a very talented new comer. With a Françoise hardy sample.
Guizmo - Le Premier Chagrin du jour (La banquise)
Amusing and sensitive songs very well written. Oldelaf is the guy who wrote Le café.
Oldelaf - Comme je peux (Le Monde est beau, 2011)
Luce - J'me fume (Première phalange, 2011)
A French reggae hit:
Danakyl - Quitter Paname (Dialogue de sourd, 2011)
And two big hits:
Booba, gave to French rap some of his masterpieces (Mauvais Oeil, Panthéon, Temps Mort). His new songs are not as good unfortunately, but still much better than most of French rap.
Booba - Scarface (Autopsie vol 4, 2011)
Not my kind of music, but one of the biggest 2011'shit. A mix between dancehall and varieté.
Colonel Reyel - Aurélie
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As you know, France had colonies in North Africa: Tunisia and Morocco (until 1956), and Algeria (a French département until 1962) so migrations had been intense between France and those countries. Thus, Arabs, Kabyles, Sefarade Jews have enriched French music.
During the first half of the XXth century, there were already great musicians of North African descent living in France; especially Kabyles from Algeria. The great Cheikh El Hasnaoui was singing in the Algerian chaâbi style, but met success only in the Kabyle community. On the other hand, some second generation immigrants became huge stars of typical chanson, like Mouloudji, Alain Bashung and... Edith Piaf!
Nowadays, there are typical north African music styles popular in France, especially among north African community but some are mainstream (like raï). There are also many singers from North African descent playing classic French music. In this post, I will only introduce you the north African influence on French styles, especially during the last 20 years, in rock, rap or chanson. I won't distinguish between all different north African musics which are very various, only because I don't knoow enough about them.
One of the first to mix French popular music with Arab music in France may have been Rachid Taha and his band Carte de séjour in the early 80's. As you see in the name of the band which means "Green card", political issues are not far when it comes to cultural mixing and the issues of the identity and recognition of second generation immigrants. To understand the context of the following songs, you have to keep in mind that the 1980's were also the time of the rise of xenophobic and racist party Front National...
Carte de Séjour - Zoubida (1982)
One of their success was the cover of Charles Trenet's classic track "Douce France" whose lyrics are a nostalgic portray of France written during German Occupation of France during World War II.
Carte de Séjour - Douce France (1943/1986)
One of the greatest hit of the world famous Mano Negra (Manu Chao's band) was a cover of an Arab song, sung by Philippe Teboul.
Brigitte Fontaine is one of the greatest French singer. Many of her songs were composed by Areski Belkacem who was influenced by north African music, especially chaâbi.
Brigitte Fontaine - Le Nougat (1988)
Brigitte Fontaine - Guadalquivir (2001)
In French rap, influences of North African musics can also sometimes be found, such as in this two classics of French rap.
A song that deal with the relation between second generation immigrants and the native home of their parents, called in French "bled".
113 - Tonton du bled (produced by DJ Medhi, 1999)
Lunatic - Pas Le Temps Pour Les Regrets (2000) (with the sample of Lebanon star Fairuz's Zahrat El Madaen)
The song that was featured in Ocean's 12 laser scene.
La Caution - Thé à la menthe (2005) (Mint tea).
And to conclude, listen to Helwa ya baladi sung by the French pop star, Dalida, who grew up in Egypt before moving to France. The song composed by Gilbert Sinoué and Jeff Barnel for her, is an hymn to her native country. Dalida - Helwa ya baladi (1979)
If this blog mainly focuses on music from France, I do love musics from other countries. To stay in the topic of French Kisses, here's a selection of great tracks from West Africa with lyrics sung in French among my all time favorites. Great classics and more recent hits.
Unforgettable classics:
Orchestra Baobab - On verra ça ce soir (Senegal,1979)
Bembeya jazz National - Téléphone (Guinea, 1977)
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou - Ne te Faches Pas (Benin, 1970's)
Grand Kalle & OK Jazz - Table Ronde (Congo, 1960)
Tabu Ley Rochereau - Gagner Gagner (Congo, 1984)
Tchico Tchikaya- Jeannot (Congo, soukous, 1979)
More recent sounds:
Magic system - Un Gaou à Paris (Ivory Coast, zouglou, 2003)
Amadou et Mariam - Je pense à toi (Mali, 1998)
And some African rap:
Positive black soul - Je ne sais pas (Senegal, 1995)
In 2010, a French teenager is likely to listen to Sexion d'Assaut. With 1,5 millions facebook fans (huge if you compare to the population of France, and the band doesn't have any international audience). The crew is definitely the greatest commercial success of 2010 with there first LP L'École Des Points Vitaux (and released on an small independent label). Their style is a very catchy rap, with dancing beats and lyrics with teenage appeal (but more clever than most radio hits), but still keep the flavor of the underground where they are from.
In October a polemic occurred about the (proven) homophobic content of the early lyrics and statements of some members of Sexion d'Assaut which lead to the cancellation of many of their shows.
Sexion d'Assault - Casquette à l'envers (backward cap). (2010)
To start with 2010's music, some hip-hop. Oxmo Puccino and Booba were singing together in the underground crew Time Bomb back in the 90's. Now they are both very famous but as you can see, their styles have nothing in common.
Oxmo Puccino - Quitte Moi (leave me)
Booba - Foetus
And an other track of a good French rap album of 2010: Rocé - Si peu comprennent ('l'être humain et le réverbère)
Oxmo Puccinoaka the Black Jacques Brel is back with a really good new single, 365 Days, of his upcoming LP "L'arme de Paix" (The Peace weapon).
Alain Bashung, the dark Prince of French Music is the winner of the Victoires de la Musique (Music's Victories) for his LP Bleu Pétrole. He has received11 awards since 1986! Camille, Arthur H and Rokia Traoré were also awarded. Good news actually, since the Victoires de la Musique are used to award cheesy artists.
A Short History of French Hip-hop, with one track by year. I couldn't mention all good rap crew. If you like the tracklist, check also La Cliqua, ATK, L'Armée 12, Kerry James, Svinkels, Les Gourmets, Akhenaton, Les Sages Poètes de La Rue, Busta Flex, Hocus Pocus, Fonky Family, La Rumeur...
The Roots
French Hip-hop didn't exist yet, but we could find some seeds, in the USA, withBeside singing in French on an American tune, and the Great Gainsbourg sampling a hip-hop chorus.
1983 Fab Five Freddy feat. B-side - Change The Beat 1987 Serge Gainsbourg - Your Under Arrest The Youth
MC Solaar, NTM, Assassin and IAM are the founding fathers of French rap. They created a real French sound, inspired by, but different from the American model.
1990 MC Solaar- Bouge De Là 1991 NTM - Le Monde de Demain 1992 Assassin - L'Ecologie: Sauvons La Planète 1993 IAM - Le Shit Squad 1994 MC Solaar - Nouveau Western
The Golden Age
French Hip-hop was now matured and the best LPs were released those years. I put two great songs with prestigious American featuring.
1995 NTM - Affirmative Action feat. Nas and the Firm 1996 Doc Gyneco - Ma Salope A Moi 1997 Afro Jazz - Striclty Hip-hop feat. Old Dirty Bastard 1998 Idéal J - Un Nuage De Fumée 1999 Saian Supa Crew - Angela 2000 Lunatic - Pas Le Temps Pour Les Regrets
The Renewal
While some artists became huge stars, some became commercial or redundant, others tried new ways, incorporating electronic music, Arabic music, chanson, ragga, or jazz... and rap about new topics.
2001 Oxmo Puccino - Le Laid 2002 113 - Les Bronzés 2003 Klub des Loosers - Baise Les Gens 2004 TTC- Dans Le Club 2005 La Caution - Thé A La Menthe 2006 Oxmo Puccino - Perdre Ou Gagner 2007 James Delleck - Gérard de Roubaix 2008 Sefyu -Mon Public
Known abroad for the "Laser dance song" on Ocean Twelve, La Caution is a mainstay of the "French rap new wave" of the 00's (alongside with TTC, L'Armée des 12, Klub des Loosers, James Deleck) which melt electronic music with rap.
They released many good tracks, but I want to introduce you the vocal version of their hit Thé à la Menthe. The amazing beat has a really nice Arab flavor. The lyrics are about a very typical theme in French rap: immigration. Indeed, French rappers, contrary to American ones, are very often sons of immigrates, mostly from North and West Africa. The two rappers of La Caution, Hi-Tekk et Nikkfurie are of Moroccandescents.
For the subtitles, I used this good translation (I've just corrected some little mistakes but I think there are some left). Slang and wordplay are very difficult to translate, especially when they are melt with some arabic words. (actually many French words comes from Arabic). In the song, there are the words"srab" which means "friend", and "Salamalek" which means "Peace on you" and is used to say hello. Last thing, when they say "Albatross of Baudelaire", they refer to the famous poem of Baudelaire that many students have to learn in school.
La Caution - Thé à la menthe (from Peine de Maures, 2005)
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