Le rap

For as long as everyone can remember I have been arguably the most unlikely rap-head on the face of the Earth.
There ain’t too many on this Earth whiter than the artist formerly known as Snuffleupagus. Shoot, back in high school I would wear a white T-Shirt, white shorts, white tube socks and call it my God outfit because you couldn’t look directly at me without being blinded by the whiteness. It was impossible to tell where the shorts ended and the near translucent calf began. My in-depth knowledge of hip-hop surprised those discovering it for the first time. This was apparent yet again in Chicago when a new friend christened me cornbread, ‘cuz I’m white bread but with some soul.’

Well, now I am in France, and here, I may feel less white, but I have not heard less, or more importantly worse, hip-hop. Apparently my people like the music and not only do they like it, they know the good shit from the bad.

Last Saturday, the only day to actually go out in France and find things open, I wandered into the fnac (French Best Buy) and decided to take a look and see what they had to offer. After discovering that of course, these are the French and they insist of placing the French language albums at the front of the store, I found to the general pop music section and what should I see? Raekwon the chef nearly sold out and showcased at the front of the display! Of course whose album was sitting directly adjacent almost totally stocked? Jigga… maybe these are my people.

I might have never been prouder to be French. There had been signs that the French knew their rap. I had heard a few VW Golfs with lowered suspensions and subwoofers blaring some good ole fashioned beats in the suburbs near my new apartment. There was also the young night clerk at the hostel who asked me where I was from and when I replied Cali, responded how cool it was that I grew up near Long Beach and Compton with Snoop and Dre. I didn’t have the heart to give him a geography lesson, and think this camaraderie may have helped me a few days later avoid a lost card fee. I have also noticed the French bumping native tongue rhymers rolling down the avenues. The only one I have been able to ID so far is MC Solaar, but during my time here I have added discover Francophone lyricists to the to-do list.

Now the rap community in the states is on to this, I think, or at least the record labels are. I mean, maybe even the Game was onto something by calling out Jay-Z in Bordeaux, maybe those Frogs really weren’t just playing sing-a-long and do have an educated opinion on whether or not Hova is overrated (definitely). Regardless, the Wu certainly appreciates the French audience. The album released here in France has a Euro only extra track on it and it samples the original ‘Guillotine Swordz’!!! Because France recently put up arguably the most strict file sharing laws in the world I haven’t been able to sample the track online, but I plan on buying the album regardless because it is awesome, and could become my first French souvenir.

~Yo la la.