The World of French Music: Afrobeats and Rap

A quintessential part of French culture is its music scene, which blends various genres, languages, and insights from contemporary French society. Afrobeats and French Rap have become widespread across Francophone nations, especially among the younger generations.

Afrobeats, although originating in West African countries, has gained significant popularity in France due to the country’s strong cultural and historical ties with those communities as well as the vast number of African immigrants living there. In fact, Paris was among the top five cities in the world for streaming Afrobeats on Spotify in 2023.

French Afrobeats is characterized by vibrant rhythms, combining traditional African beats with modern electronic music and a mixture of French, English and indigenous African languages.

‘Ramenez la coupe à la maison’ (‘Bring the trophy back home’) by Vegedream is a particularly resonant example of the impact of Afrobeats among the French population. It was released in July 2018, a few days before the France national football team won the 2018 World Cup and it skyrocketed to number one on the French Singles Chart within two weeks of its release. The upbeat, energetic and celebratory style of Afrobeats suited this song perfectly and became an iconic anthem across France as it captured the country’s pride and multicultural identity.

Some other notable French Afrobeats artists are Aya Nakamura, Maître Gims, Niska and Dadju. Here are some of their songs I recommend checking out:

1. Djadja (Aya Nakamura)
2. Grand Bain (Dadju feat. Ninho)
3. LOCO (Maître Gims)
4. Bob Marley (Dadju)
5. Balader (Soolking & Niska)

French rap has evolved into an even more influential and popular genre across the Francophone world. It combines local experiences with global hip-hop culture while mixing in neighbouring languages such as Spanish, Arabic and English.

France is the second largest hip-hop market in the world after the United States and most French rappers take inspiration from American artists such as the ‘ghetto/gangster life’ portrayed in rap videos but alter the lyrics to appeal to Francophone listeners. Its popularity skyrocketed in the early 21^st century by a decision of the French ministry of culture, which insisted that French radio language stations play a minimum of 40% French pop/rap.

Interestingly, French rap is often quite different from traditional English/American rap, it tends to have longer sentences and a more poetic feel and also focuses more deeply on topics like immigration, discrimination and the struggles of living in ‘les banlieues’ (suburbs). Unlike mainstream pop, French rap embraces direct criticism of the government and uses emotive lyrics encourage social protest.

For example, the song ‘Le monde ou rien’ (The world or nothing) by PNL dealt with social alienation and lack of opportunities for young people living in poverty-stricken areas in France. In 2015, when the song was produced, France was dealing with rising youth unemployment, growing economic inequality and tensions between the police and ‘les banlieues’, especially after the ‘Charlie Hebdo attacks’ earlier that year.

Some of the most popular rappers in France today are JUL, Soolking, Ninho and Gazo:

1. J’oublie tout (JUL)
2. Casanova (Soolking & Gazo)
3. RAPPEL (Gazo)
4. Suavemente (Soolking)
5. La vie qu’on mène (Ninho)

Looking past the usual slurs and sometimes excessive autotune, there is an indescribable aspect that make contemporary French music an essential part of my playlists. Perhaps it is the way words flow seamlessly that is impossible in English or maybe the ingenious rhymes and imagery that rappers use to express themselves.

Bibliography:

Dosunmu, D. (2024). How Spotify Helped Turn Afrobeats into a Global Phenomenon. [online] Rest of World. Available at: https://restofworld.org/2024/spotify-afrobeats-go-global/.

Laurens, J. (2018). Inside France’s World Cup ceremony Didier Deschamps’ men celebrate in style – ESPN. [online] ESPN.com. Available at: https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/37502140/inside-france-world-cup-ceremony-didier-deschamps-men-celebrate-style [Accessed 28 Oct. 2024].

Chevalier, F. (2017). Spectacles – tous nos articles et vidéos – page 1. [online] http://www.telerama.fr. Available at: https://www.telerama.fr/sortir/de-ntm-a-pnl-ce-que-la-geographie-nous-apprend-de-lhistoire-du-rap-francais.

My Spotify Playlists