Black, Blanc, Beur: Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture in the Francophone World

Rap music was born in America in the early 1980s. Over the last decade it has not only grown in popularity within the United States, with rap music soaring to the top of the music charts, but it has also influenced other cultures around the world. Black, Blanc, Beur is about the emergence and growing notoriety of rap music and hip-hop culture in the French-speaking world (France, Quebec, and Western Africa). It provides an introduction to many forms of expression of hip-hop cultures (rap music, hip-hop dance, and graffiti/tagging). Since its arrival in France, rap music experienced immediate and ever-growing success, going from an underground sound to becoming the second largest market in the world after the United States. Just as American rap crossed borders, French rap influenced artists in the rest of the Francophone world. In addition to a foreword by Adam Krims, a noted rap authority, this volume has contributions by some of the most renowned hip-hop scholars on both sides of the Atlantic and addresses hip-hop from the perspective of various disciplines: African studies, anthropology, cultural studies, ethnology, French and Francophone studies, history, linguistics, musicology, psychology, and sociology. Contributors discuss the history of French rap music from its origin to the present, the various artists and their groups, stage performances of the rap groups in Paris, Marseilles, the art of graffiti, and the French public’s perceptions of rap music. Each chapter is equipped with a short bibliography. This is the first book on the subject of French rap music and hip-hop culture in English. A wonderful resource for scholars and students of African, French and pop culture, ethnomusicology, and for the general public interested in rap music and the hip-hop culture.