Hip hop culture emerged in New York in the mid-seventies. Initially reserved for connoisseurs, it grew exponentially before imposing itself as a dominant genre in contemporary pop music.
In France, rap appeared in the early eighties. Initially despised by the media, shunned by music producers, it nally gained legitimacy in the early nineties when artists like MC Solaar, NTM and IAM came to the fore. The speci city of French rap lies in its broader social outlook and more narrative style compared with US rap. A nation of literature, France found in rap a musical style that spars with words and is ideal for narrating stories.
With artists like Youssoupha, Orelsan, Sexion d’Assaut and Keny Arkana, French rap has now transformed into a popular activist style that attracts a broad range of listeners.
This seminar is structured around a discussion on the development of rap culture both in France and in the US, from its birth until now, of its branching out into the African continent, the evolution of its textual content and its in uence on society.
In a nutshell, I suggest a discussion of this now-global culture, contributing my expertise built over thirty years in the area of so-called urban music.
About Olivier Cachin
Olivier Cachin is a journalist, writer and lecturer. The founder of L’Af che magazine and of the television show Rapline, he has been editor in chief of hip hop magazine Radikal and is the author of some fteen publications, including L’Offensive Rap, 100 Albums Essentiels Du Reggae and the biography of Michael Jackson (Pop Life, which went on to become a bestseller). Every Friday he is on air with the radio station Mouv’ with his show La Sélection Rap. He lives and works in Paris.