The Rise and Evolution of French Rap: The Real Capital and Top Artists Embodied.

French rap is built around territories. Each rapper represents his city, his department or his district. But what is the real capital of French rap and who embodies it best? To try to answer these questions, let’s take a look back at the history of rap, from the suburbs to Paris.

At the beginning of 2000, rap in Île-de-France was above all a scene completely neglected by record companies. If we want to make ourselves known, we sell our albums and t-shirts in Clignancourt and we post freestyle videos on MySpace. At the beginning of 2000, the public only knew the street rap of NTM and the more pop rap of Diam’s but the golden age of the 90s is over, rap has fallen into disuse. The traditional media shuns rappers, who are not very numerous any more.

It’s a UFO that will take rap from a piece of string industry to a large-scale market. And this UFO is called Sexion d’Assaut. A group of Parisians not necessarily well regarded by more hardcore rap aficionados who then came from the suburbs. “We weren’t thugs, we were street guys” recalls Adama, one of the members of the group. Parisians who then live in the same galley as that described by the other rappers but brandish the 75 like a totem in their verses. A Parisian rap inspired by the “chic ghetto” and offers the Sexion a unique sound on a street background but accessible to the public of the city center.

Fif, co-founder of Position-P, already sees a group of stars and the future proves him right. In 2009, Sexion released their first album. What was then supposed to be a meet-up with a few fans turns into a walkabout in front of Beaubourg. At the FNAC in Châtelet, the hundred copies of the album sold out in a few minutes. All this, without the help of a label or the media. The crew understood that they could sell themselves thanks to the internet and the development of social networks.

A new album follows and “Sorry“. ” It was not expected “ confides Adama, a week later, the title is gold record. The Sexion d’Assaut is propelled to another planet. Criticized by its peers for being too smooth, the group has allowed rap to impose itself on the charts and to find a door of entry into all homes. The traditional media seizes the phenomenon. Sexion d’Asaut puts Paris back on the rap map.

“Always as a team, we prefer to be in a coach than in a Porsche”

In parallel with the apogee of Wati-B, it is well surrounded thatAlpha When arrives with theEntouragethe S-Crew et 1995 to bring back the rap of the old. Nekfeu, Sneazzy and all their friends meet daily on a vacant lot in Ménilmontant. There, we practice the culture of punchline and freestyle. In this plain, rappers are fed with 90’s rap. It doesn’t matter where you’re from as long as you have the credentials. These guys are everywhere, at all the open-mics and bring battles up to date by creating the “Rap Contenders” whose first episode immediately goes viral.

After several years of being dominated by the streets of Paris, suburban rap takes its revenge with the arrival of trap music and a newcomer powered by Le Duc, Booba. If 1995 is inspired by the past, Booba looks to the future and collaborates with a certain Kaaris on “Kalash” in 2010. A pivotal year for this young newcomer from Sevran who will take his chance and embrace trap to find a more hardcore rap. The Kaaris/Therapy Music duo, his label, will arrive in force and put a lot of pressure on all the Parisian artists.

Kaaris signs in 2012 and leaves “ Zoo “. The album “Or Noir” was released a year later and the sales proved the Sevranais right. It’s official, Kaaris has reopened the hardcore rap game. In two or three months, “Or Noir” is a gold record and it is in Sevran that we find the best productions. From 2015, we are witnessing a new golden age of rap, in particular, thanks to the explosion of streaming. The currents are multiplying, the rap is sometimes softer, more lively or even more dancing.

Following the example of Kaaris, MHD also tries his hand at trapping, but without much success. In the 1.9 Networks team, he’s not the most talented, but that’s because the pizza delivery man doesn’t yet know that he has to find his own style. It’s through a video of a few seconds, laying down her hardcore rhymes to Shekini’s afro music, “Psquare“that MHD is going to become the father of afrotrap. The kid from the Cité Rouge causes a tidal wave with lyrics inspired by trap but a danceable sound that quickly arrives in the biggest clubs of the capital and soon in those of the whole world.

If in Paris it’s the Champions League, MHD do not forget the small and the large crown in its sounds. He brought another rap and went beyond the borders of the capital, taking with him all of France on the international scene.

“At home, we love you then we forget you. At home, we bleed then we grow”

At home, or rather, at home, it is in Corbeil-Essonnes in a department long forgotten by rap. All the territories have had their hour of glory but in Essonne, it is difficult to rally the Pyramids and the Tarterêts on the same sound. And yet, no one came to PNL. Out of nowhere, they imposed their cloud rap without having ever signed with any label or given an interview. Nourished with this between oneself of the 91, they create the exploit by touching all the public.

Far from anger and dirty rap, PNL takes the path of spleen. Put aside for a long time, the 91 invades the scene: Niska, Alkpote, Ninho to name a few. Sitting on the top floor of the Eiffel Tower, PNL completes its rise and brings a whole new generation of rappers closer to the stars.

This golden age will also inspire the elders to come back to the fore. Among them, Sofiane representative of the kick of Seine-Saint-Denis. It was time for the department, considered one of the cradles of Ile-de-France rap, to come and titillate the newcomers. At over thirty years old, the rapper returns with a constructed rap and an effective production. He knows the industry and he has a well-filled address book. One who calls himself “missing link between the two generations” takes his place in the ring.

It is finally under the impulse of the 93 that old and new generation, rappers of suburbs and rappers of Paris, will meet on the same prod. “The suburbs influence Paname, Paname influences the world”this is repeated by Médine, Lartiste, Lino, Sofiane, Alivor, Seth Gueko, Ninho and Youssoupha in the title “Greater Paris“Long before the Marseille organized gang, Parisian rappers understood that they too represented an essential scene in French rap.

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