Meet the top French rappers and up-and-comers, including Guizmo, Orelsan, Maitre Gims, and more. Explore the best in Rap and Hip Hop music.
France has risen to become the second largest market in the world for Rap music, behind the U.S. Musically and visually, French Hip Hop reflects the trends in American Hip Hop. France has its jazz rap, its gangsta rap, its conscious rap, and all the same sub-genres as in the U.S.
French rappers hail mostly from the poor Paris suburbs or from Marseilles. Nearly all of them are of African descent, tracing their ancestry to one of the former French colonies.
In the early 90's, it was MC Solaar who brought French Rap into the mainstream and proved that there was a global audience for it. As with all French music, there's always an extra emphasis on the lyrics. At a time when English music has taken over everywhere, French Rap plays a very important role by making it "cool" for the youth of France to listen to music performed in their own language.
Here's a selection of today's French rappers:
French Rap Albums
Lino
Lino (one half of the late-90's Rap duo Ärsenik) has a new album out called Requiem, which features guest appearances by Corneille and Zaho, among others.
Here's "V.L.B." a tribute to the Villiers-Le-Bel suburb outside Paris. And yes, he IS saying "Billie Jean" in the chorus. The song and video have a lot of references to the 80's and 90's. (Reebok Classics, Levi's, Lacoste, beepers and payphones, etc.)
Guizmo is an underground French rapper breaking into the mainstream. Formerly of the L'entourage collective, he's a notable punchline rapper who's skilled at battle rapping. He gained notoriety through mixtape appearances and a pair of freestyle videos that got over a million views on YouTube.
To seize the moment, Guizmo released two albums in quick succession: Normal, followed by La Banquiste. He followed that with a third album called C'est Tout, and his latest is Dans ma ruche.
La Fouine is one of the today’s top French rap artists. The lanky rapper with the self-deprecating moniker (“la fouine” translates as “weasel”) is known for his highly melodic, American-style, French Hip Hop, and a flair for Pop and R&B hooks that appeal to the mainstream.
Paris-bred rapper Oxmo Puccino first emerged in the mid-90’s as a promising New School MC. His deft lyricism, wordplay, and poetic depictions of life in the Paris ghettos cemented his reputation as a Rap legend.
As part of the Time Bomb crew, along with the French rappers Pit Baccardi, Booba (of the duo Lunatic), X-Men, HiFi and the Jedi, he became a leading figure of the Golden Era of French Hip Hop.
Sexion D’Assaut has operated as a loose collective of rappers for over 10 years. Now, they’ve solidified into a French Rap group with permanent members.
The eight Paris MCs in the group are Maitre Gims, Lefa, Maska, Adams aka Barack Adama or Adama Diallo, JR O Crome aka Jeryzoos, Black Mesrimes aka Black M, Doumams, and L.I.O. aka Petrodollars. The group strives for universal reach, shunning the “gangsta rap” or “bling bling” Rap genres.
Rap music didn’t really get going in France until the 90’s. MC Solaar was the first successful Hip Hop artist, putting French Rap in the mainstream and taking it worldwide. His jazzy, poetic, intellectual style was a good fit for the early 90’s. The gritty, hardcore lyrics of the seminal Rap duo Suprême NTM stood in stark contrast.
Take the legendary Roots Crew (aka The Roots), add in some world champion DJs, and translate their lyrics to French, and you’ve got the French Hip Hop group Hocus Pocus.
The group includes two members of the 4-time DMC world champion DJ/turntable team C2C (DJ Greem and 20Syl — who’s also the MC and producer for HP), along with musicians Antoine Saint-Jean, David Le Deunff, Herve Godard, and Matthieu Lelievre.
Meet the top French rappers and up-and-comers, including Guizmo, Orelsan, Maitre Gims, and more. Explore the best in Rap and Hip Hop music.
Guizmo
