Pride?
Grunherz, let's just say Vanilla Ice pales in comparison
Some of the stuff is good, but it's a bit like Drum-n-bass or Hardcore, a few minutes and you'll have had enough..
Either it's real mellow and sounds like cheap plastic imitations of RnB, or very hardcore and stale. A snooze either way, for most people.
I guess it's a product of the environment, and besides a few who really tried to transcend the usual '(I'm) living in this dump and the world/society/humanity sucks'.
French rap has the same engrish false notes as every other cultural fad that strikes a chord in a culture foreign from its own, where certain parts are toned down and others up. Comparatively to the original, it's disproportionate and becomes something of its own. Sometimes it works (if that even means anything more than comercial success), sometimes it doesn't.
It's not to discredit all of it, because there are some very good continuations of innovations of the american stuff it grew from, but overall the quality is lesser, either from the cheaper production, or lack of self-esteem/culture - to call em like I see em
MC Solaar was one of the more mellow MCs, and really had talent, literaly. He had good-natured, authentic charisma and plenty of creativity. It translated very well in his stuff, and the french language was a fertile medium for it, but hip-hop culture mostly grew away from this and soon enough he (since his stuff wasn't just ego-trip abstractions) was too 'pop' for most.
In my opinion he really did transcend 'hiphop', but most people think he's just a wimp. Nice guys finish last.
I could go on, because there's a lot more to it, e.g. the corelations to the society and culture that feeds on it and that it feeds on (particularily the political character which is pretty common), but that's pretty boring, as you could probably do the math yourself once you recognize it for the fasion/social phenomenon it is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_rapI haven't kept in touch with the latest developments of the 'scene', but from the bits I do hear, it hasn't changed much.
Art is always art, and seeing enough from a particular, average artist, you get a sense for the stuff, and start being able to see it exactly for what the artist meant it to be. It decides how soon you outgrow what the artist has to offer, in the case of french hiphop, it's relatively quick.. the width and breadth is pretty limited, and it's not really evolving that much.
A broken record, basicaly.
