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

Alain-Philippe Durand (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0810844311 | ISBN-13: 978-0810844315 | Publication Date: October 2002

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The first book in English devoted entirely to Francophone rap, and as such aims at filling an important gap…the wide range of relevant approaches used in most of the essays, as well as the variety of issues discussed by their authors are worth, I think, an attentive reading. (Notes )

A valuable addition to the growing body of academic literature in English on non-Anglophone hip-hop outside the USA. (European Journal Of Communication )

This interdisciplinary volume should make the field of French/francophone hip-hop more accessible to Anglophone readers, particularly those who may wish to embark upon comparative studies of hip-hop culture around the world. (Modern & Contemporary France )

...a very useful work for future research on the ethnology of hip-hop. (Anthropologie Et Sociétés )

...for those among us who enjoy teaching popular music in our French classes to increase student vocabulary, improve student pronunciation, and introduce students to contemporary Francophone culture, Black, Blanc, Beur provides the essential background information for the instructor. Black, Blanc, Beur does an excellent job of introducing the uninitiated into the world of Francophone rap music from an interdisciplinary angle....particularly noteworthy is the explanation by Durand in his introduction on the volume's title. (French Review )

About the Author

Alain-Philippe Durand is Associate Professor of French, Film Studies, and Comparative Literature at the University of Rhode Island, Kingston and Visiting Professor of Cultural Studies, International Business Program, at the Euromed School of Management, Marseille, France.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Scarecrow Press (October 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810844311
• ISBN-13: 978-0810844315
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,032,843 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > History > Africa > Gabon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars waxing philosophical about da hood, October 21, 2010

By 

Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Black, Blanc, Beur: Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture in the Francophone World (Hardcover)

This book reminded me of the book "Money, Morals, and Manners" by Michele Lamont. In that text, she interviewed rich, white men in the US and France. You would think that they had similar views, but they didn't. For example, she said Jeopardy! winners would be deemed smart in the US, but the French would consider that knowledge trivial. On the other hand, people across classes read philosophy publications in France while those texts gain dust in US colleges' libraries. This book has many Francophones being very wordy and philosophical about rap and its counterparts.
The book even slaps ppl like myself. One author, possibly the main editor, said "Ppl think they know French rap just 'cuz they saw "Hate" and have heard of MC Solaar." Oops! There's more than that and we in the US should know about it?!?
I assumed the term "Black, Blanc, Beur" was a way to say "equal opportunity employer" or "all are welcome." I knew it celebrates France's triraciality and multiculturalism. However, I never knew it played on "bleu, blanc, rouge," the colors of France's flag. I wonder if one could make a shirt with a black stripe, a white stripe, and a brown one and make a ton of loot over there. But really, I thought this book said little about beurs and spoke mostly about Blacks, as one might assumed based on how we brothas rule rap in the US.
Without a doubt, your average hip-hop head would not understand this book. It's a bunch of high-level yak-yak. It does touch about gray areas. The disenfranchised try to stand out bragadociously through this field. The Francophone poor praise the hood, but use rap to have the resources of the rich. The same folk whos parents struggled to leave France now talk mess about it (not that I don't relate to that). This book examines mixed emotions well.
You know that phrase "I hope my eyes won't be bigger than my stomach."? That applied here. This book on French rap sounded like it would be better than it actually was.