French Hip Hop - Language

Language

Although hip hop in France has been greatly influenced by American hip hop culture, the lyrics remain typically in French. Other than English, other language influences are based on oral traditions such as African griots, "talk over" of Jamaica and the blues. French music lyrics typically feature puns, play on words and suggestive phonetic combinations. Such artists as Boby Lapointe often use alliterations, onomatopoeia and puns or double entendre lyrics. The dialect of choice for many hip hop artists in France is verlan which is based on the inverse of original French words. In some cases artists rap in several different languages on a track including Arabic, French and English. The purpose of the lyrics, no matter the language, is "to popularize and vent the anger and frustrations of many disadvantaged and sometimes mistreated individuals, and to defend the cause of the poorest and least socially integrated segment of French society".

French hip hop stands out for its "flowing, expressive tones of the language give it a clear identity within the rap world." In many French rap songs Verlan is used which is a slang that twists words by reversing and recombining them. This makes it difficult for even French speaking listeners to understand what the MC is saying. Even though it is difficult at times to understand completely the lyrics that are being said rappers still get the heat for causing violence and disturbance within society because of their intense message of rebelling against the system.

It is said that one of the most interesting points about French rap is the idea that "poetry and philosophy are greatly esteemed in France, and that they're even more greatly esteemed in French." It is general knowledge that the French love lyrics, and it seems as though no other European national is as committed to the proliferation of its mother tongue. In fact, French law states that radio play must contain at least 40% French-language material.

David Brooks claims that French rap is a copy of American gangsta rap of the early 1990s. However, his position was attacked by Jody Rosen in her article which debunks Brooks's belief that the French hip hop scene is no more than a carbon copy of earlier American work.

Like much of the Hip Hop from the United States, many French hip hop artists use the genre to address pressing social issues. The authors of the "Arab Noise and Ramadan Nights: Rai, Rap, and Franco- Maghrebi Identity" state that The French rappers rap about "the history of slavery, humanity's origins in Africa, Europe's destruction of African civilizations and the independence struggle led by the Front De Liberation Nationale." The components of their music are mostly influenced by the American rappers, but they also have their own style such as having their culture's tune in the beat. And they rap in their language and their phonetic sounds differ in time to time.

As France has embraced hip hop, they put a huge emphasis on the lyrics. The love to sing about love and poetry, and they also love to rap in French dialect. No other European nation is as committed to rapping in its mother tongue. The French government has a mandate that 40 percent of the music played on the radio must be in French. This has inspired lyrical expression in the French language. Hip hop is a way for artists to express these feelings. In the nineties hip hop became the sound of Paris as well as suburban and provincial France for that matter. More precisely, a hip hop built of French language lyrics laid on top of traditional break beats and elaborate samples. France used American hip hop as a base and then made its own flavor of hip hop based on the use of French lyrics.