Rhymin’ to (Re)Discover One’s Africanité

This paper analyzes the presence and influence of Africa in French hip-hop music over time, giving particular emphasis to recent years where the continent has motivated deeper connections and more meaningful manifestations of one’s heritage culture in songs and video presentations by popular artists. Contemporary rappers in France have been linguistically and stylistically shifting their sounds away from trends present in the United States as they increasingly focus their attention toward the African continent as a way to celebrate the duality of their bicultural identity. This international and transnational musical alteration of their sound toward Africa provides them and their fans much needed comfort against the marginalization that they face at home in France. Thus, these contemporary thematic types of transnational musical shout-outs to the African continent provide rappers and their consumers hailing from ethnocultural communities a means in which to confront the racism and exclusion they face in a country where youths of color are frequently viewed with suspicion and where issues relating their unique diverse social constructs are routinely ignored or dismissed by the French State.