You can relate to it even if you don’t understand it, though the latter helps unravel additional layers of meaning. It is rap’s rhythm, its flow, that makes it a truly global language, an Esperanto for the new millennium. In a 1990 interview, Lionel D explained how, despite not understanding French, American rappers could feel the rhythm of his words. Over the next few years, the show transformed a generation of kids who, as Lionel D remarked, “may not have been great yet wanted to take part.” The release of the compilation Rapattitude in 1990 by Virgin Records, featuring early acts like Assassin, NTM and EJM alongside ragga singers, marked the beginning of a new era. The pair emerged from the Parisian scene and found themselves hosting the Deenastyle show on Radio Nova in 1988, where they’d invite young artists to freestyle. The visual elements of hip-hop – graffiti and breakdancing – acted as carriers in those formative years, often capturing the attention of kids on the margins of society and leading them to pick up a pen to articulate the reality of their life.Ī handful of pioneers built the French scene out of passion, among them Dee Nasty and the late Lionel D. The previous year had seen the release of the first French rap record, Dee Nasty’s Paname City Rappin’, and regular events – block parties, open mic sessions, breaking showcases – in the capital and beyond provided a fertile ground for a French take on rap to form throughout the decade.
#90S HIP HOP SERIES#
Despite this, hip-hop’s growth in France throughout the 1980s remained typified by a series of stop-and-starts, with the media acting as gatekeepers of cool.īy 1985, the music was declared dead in spite of the reality on the ground.
In November of that year the tour landed in Paris, and by the end of the night hip-hop had found its second home.įrance had already gotten a taste of hip-hop via the ubiquitous success of “Rapper’s Delight” and early shows on pirate stations like Paris’ Radio Nova, but the New York City Rap Tour catalysed a bubbling enthusiasm around the country. The result was the New York City Rap Tour, a travelling showcase of DJs, rappers, graffiti artists and breakdancers. In 1982, Zekri and others were charged by Europe 1, a French radio station, with bringing hip-hop to the old continent. Note how some - like House of Pain - have managed to turn their 15 minutes into a prolonged career, while others are all but forgotten.Hip-hop may have been born in the apartment building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, where Kool Herc first spun the breaks, but it wasn’t until it began to travel that the culture and music as we know it today took shape, defined not just by its practitioners but also by outsiders.īernard Zekri was one such outsider, a French journalist living in Manhattan.
On that note, we decided to put together our list (in semi-chronological order) of the 30 best one-hit wonders of '90s hip-hop. Hell, if it weren't, would we even still be discussing a group that hasn't had another song on the radio in nearly 20 years? Plus, due to its constant usage in every sports arena on the planet, the song is arguably just as popular today as it ever has been. And who could disagree? It was a hell of a song. "Jump Around" was more than just a flash-in-the-pan radio hit - it's been included on pretty much every "best hip-hop songs of all time" list.
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