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Most French hip hop artists come from poor suburbs of Paris, Strasbourg, Toulouse or Marseille. Unlike African Americans who live in urban ghettos in the United States, the birthplace of hip hop, France has had a much wider social safety net, meaning that poverty has rarely been as extreme in France's North and West African immigrant communities (where most of the artists come from) as it has been in African American ghettoes. There are, however, ethnic French rappers, such as the Breton Manau or Lionel D, one of the pioneers of French rap.
Hip hop first appeared in France in the early 1980s, just as the genre was achieving some success in the US. Paname City Rappin (1984, by Dee Nasty) was the first album released, and the first major star was MC Solaar, whose 1991 Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo, was a major hit.
Some of France's most important hip hop crews include:
- IAM (Marseille) featuring members with (North) African, French and Hispano-Italian roots. Inspired by East Coast rap.
- Suprême NTM (Paris) featuring members with Caribbean and French roots. Inspired by East Coast (hardcore) rap.
- NAP (Strasbourg), with African and Caribbean roots.
- La Cliqua (Paris) featuring Rocca, bilingual rapper with Colombian roots.
- KDD (Toulouse) hardcore
- Manau (Bretagne) rather commercial group mixing hip hop with Celtic music.
- MC Solaar, considered too commercial by some. He succeedeed in writing rap songs with a strong "chanson française" influence, and his lyrical style has been compared to Serge Gainsbourg.
- Sniper
- Saïan Supa Crew (Have Brought out 2 albums, one featuring RZA).
- Zebda (Toulouse) a group of 7 with several albums and at least one very successful single. Not a rap group per se, but influenced by many styles, among them rap music.
The majority of French rappers are originally from Africa. Even though some of the pioneers like Lionel D and DJ Dee Nasty are not of African descent, immigrants from Africa dominated the music scene as well. Many are Africans from former French colonies who have moved to France for education or a better life, or are the children of African immigrants. MC Solaar, who was born in Senegal, released his first CD in 1991. More African -born French rappers include: Hip-hop groups from Africa also tour in France and other parts of Europe.
Today, French hip-hop has come full circle and back to a more "ghetto", African-American flavor. A new group of artists, among them Ole Kainry and Disiz la Peste, are very close to contemporary American rap music.
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