MC Solaar and the Influence of Globalization on Local Hip-Hop Aesthetics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.37843Keywords:
globalization, hip hop, MC Solaar, rap, signifyin(g)Abstract
As a transnational phenomenon, rap music has inspired both critiques of globalization and celebrations of locality within the Global Hip Hop Nation. This article contributes to this discussion by incorporating the work of Murray Forman and Doreen Massey on space, place and time as it relates to French rap in general and the work of French rapper MC Solaar in particular. The writing of André J. M. Prévos, Tricia Rose, and others, and analyses of MC Solaar's songs 'Lève-toi et rap' and 'Nouveau Western' illustrate how linguistic and musical vocabularies depict personal, cultural and economic issues within the confines of late capitalism.
References
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Massey, Doreen. 1994. Space, Place and Gender. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Milon, Alain. 2004. “Pourquoi le Rappeur Chante? Le Rap Comme Expression de la Relégation Urbaine”. Cités 19: 71–80. https://doi.org/10.3917/cite.019.0071
Mitchell, Tony. 2000. “Doin’ Damage in My Native Language: The Use of ‘Resistance Vernaculars’ in Hip Hop in France, Italy, and Aotearoa/New Zealand”. Popular Music and Society 23: 41–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007760008591775
Pennycook, Alastair. 2007a. “Other Englishes”. In Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows, 17–35. New York: Routledge.
—2007b. “Language Flows, Other Mixes”. In Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows, 116–39. New York: Routledge.
Petetin, Véronique. 2009. “Slam, Rap, et ‘Mondialité”. Études 6: 797–808.
Prévos, André J. M. 1996. “The Evolution of French Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture in the 1980s and 1990s”. The French Review 69: 713–25.
—2001a. “Le Business du Rap en France”. The French Review 74: 900–921.
—2001b. “Postcolonial Popular Music in France”. In Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA, edited by Tony Mitchell, 39–56. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
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Rose, Tricia. 1994. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Sautman, Francesca Canadé. 2001. “Hip-Hop/Scotch: ‘Sounding Francophone’ in French and United States Cultures”. Yale French Studies 100: 119–44. https://doi.org/10.2307/3090584
Schumacher, Thomas G. 1995. “‘This is a Sampling Sport’: Digital Sampling, Rap Music, and the Law in Cultural Production”. Media, Culture, & Society 12: 253–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/016344395017002006
Silverstein, Paul A. 2002. “‘Why Are We Waiting to Start the Fire?’: French Gangsta Rap and the Critique of State Capitalism”. In Black, Blanc, Beur: Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture in the Francophone World, edited by Alain-Philippe Durand, 45–67. Oxford: Scarecrow Press.
—2009b. “Translocal Style Communities: Hip Hop Youth as Cultural Theorists of Style, Language, and Globalization”. Pragmatics 19: 103–127. https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.19.1.06ali
Appadurai, Arjun. 1990. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy”. Public Culture 2: 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-2-2-1
Baker, Geoffrey. 2011. “Preachers, Gangsters, Pranksters: MC Solaar and Hip-Hop as Overt and Covert Revolt”. Journal of Popular Culture 44: 233–54. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5931.2011.00830.x
Cohen, Lizabeth. 2003. A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America. New York: Knopf.
Faure, Sylvia, and Marie-Carmen Garcia. 2005. “Conflits de Valeurs et Générations”. In Culture HipHop Jeunes des Cités et Politiques Publiques, 69–83. Paris: La Dispute SNÉDIT.
Forman, Murray. 2002. “Space Matters: Hip-Hop and the Spatial Perspective”. In The ’Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop, 1–34. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Frank, Thomas. 1997. The Conquest of Cool: Business, Counterculture, and the Rise of Consumerism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226924632.001.0001
Hall, Stuart. 1996. “What is this ‘Black’ in Black Popular Culture?” In Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies, edited by David Morley and Kuan-Hsing Chen, 465–75. London: Routledge.
Haupt, Adam. 2008. Stealing Empire. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
Massey, Doreen. 1994. Space, Place and Gender. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Milon, Alain. 2004. “Pourquoi le Rappeur Chante? Le Rap Comme Expression de la Relégation Urbaine”. Cités 19: 71–80. https://doi.org/10.3917/cite.019.0071
Mitchell, Tony. 2000. “Doin’ Damage in My Native Language: The Use of ‘Resistance Vernaculars’ in Hip Hop in France, Italy, and Aotearoa/New Zealand”. Popular Music and Society 23: 41–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007760008591775
Pennycook, Alastair. 2007a. “Other Englishes”. In Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows, 17–35. New York: Routledge.
—2007b. “Language Flows, Other Mixes”. In Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows, 116–39. New York: Routledge.
Petetin, Véronique. 2009. “Slam, Rap, et ‘Mondialité”. Études 6: 797–808.
Prévos, André J. M. 1996. “The Evolution of French Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture in the 1980s and 1990s”. The French Review 69: 713–25.
—2001a. “Le Business du Rap en France”. The French Review 74: 900–921.
—2001b. “Postcolonial Popular Music in France”. In Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA, edited by Tony Mitchell, 39–56. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
—2002. “Two Decades of Rap in France: Emergence, Developments, Prospects”. In Black, Blanc, Beur: Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture in the Francophone World, edited by Alain-Philippe Durand, 1–21. Oxford: Scarecrow Press.
Rose, Tricia. 1994. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Sautman, Francesca Canadé. 2001. “Hip-Hop/Scotch: ‘Sounding Francophone’ in French and United States Cultures”. Yale French Studies 100: 119–44. https://doi.org/10.2307/3090584
Schumacher, Thomas G. 1995. “‘This is a Sampling Sport’: Digital Sampling, Rap Music, and the Law in Cultural Production”. Media, Culture, & Society 12: 253–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/016344395017002006
Silverstein, Paul A. 2002. “‘Why Are We Waiting to Start the Fire?’: French Gangsta Rap and the Critique of State Capitalism”. In Black, Blanc, Beur: Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture in the Francophone World, edited by Alain-Philippe Durand, 45–67. Oxford: Scarecrow Press.
Published
2018-12-28
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Senger, S. (2018). MC Solaar and the Influence of Globalization on Local Hip-Hop Aesthetics. Journal of World Popular Music, 5(2), 213-228. https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.37843
