An article about French rap music and an accompanying photo caption Nov. 24 incorrectly described the Indian Ocean island Reunion as a French territory. Reunion is a political unit known as an overseas department and is considered part of France proper.
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In France, Anthems of Alienation
Boss 1, from the French territory of Reunion Island, says Marseille's rap artists "try to educate as well as describe."
(By Daniel Williams -- The Washington Post)
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Around him, the beat of "Bring Pressure" grew louder and the listeners composed their own harsh lyrics and accompanied them with hip thrusts and single-finger gestures. "Sarkozy thinks he's tough, but he can't control anything. Look around. Do you see any cops?" Skar continued. "Sarkozy wouldn't dare come in here."
French commentators have alternately labeled rap an incitement to violence or an unheeded warning in the wilderness. "In the suburbs, vocabulary is important. And rap is often the principal moving force," wrote Le Monde, the staid French daily. Rap "describes the customs and habits of the slums and reflects the contradictions of youth raised in a consumer society who don't have the keys to it."
Rappers here in Marseille, France's main Mediterranean port, dismiss accusations of incitement. "We're like singing newspapers," said Mohamed Soilihi, Skar's producer. "What we say goes on whether we say it or not. So better to listen."
French rap grew out of late 1980s New York hip-hop, with music videos as the delivery vehicle. High-rise Oliviers, with its glut of New York Yankees caps set among white Arab robes and fast-food eateries serving burgers and kebabs, seems suspended between the Bronx and Algiers.
Some of the French rappeurs imitated their American counterparts by migrating away from ghetto social concerns toward macho posturing and glorification of rough sex, pimps and gangsta life. But many still chronicle the down-and-out atmosphere of out-of-the-way suburban minority enclaves. Take these lyrics from the 1995 song by Supreme NTM, one of France's best known hip-hop groups:
What is it, what is it
You're waiting for to start the fire?
The years go by, but all is still the same
Which makes me ask, how much longer can it last?
Given the incident that touched off this fall's riots -- the deaths of two teenagers by accidental electrocution while they were allegedly being chased by police -- the words from a 1990s cut by a group called 113 seem prescient:
There had better not be a police blunder
Or the town will go up.
