Discovering French independent rap
A focus on the media 1863 that covers this rich and florishing scene
The rap scene in France is flourishing : it becomes more and more mainstream as it is one of the most listened genres in France and the streaming platform Netflix has launched a TV reality named Nouvelle Ecole that features experimented rapper and newbies in a competition. The artist SCH also won an award as he was the most listened artist on musical streaming platforms. Still, there’s a lot of room for new artists to develop their talent and to be listened to. They are mostly on SoundCloud or Youtube, the most used platforms for underground artists. One of the most recent examples would be the artist La Fève along with the producer Kosey who had a pretty important success in 2020 and is a rising star on the hip hop scene. He created his own independent label Walone.
Lots of media cover the independent scene such as ALCHIMIST or 1863. These media are often on Twitter but the bigger ones are more likely to have their own website. 1863 has even produced two mixtapes, TEAHUPOO and TAMBORA, that features dozens of independent artists and help them be more well-known to the mainstream scene.
a mixtape is a collection of songs from one or more artists, produced professionally and usually put on the internet for people to listen to for free (Cambridge Dictionary)
Thanks to their rigorous work, they have been able to be one of the sharpest and followed media that is essentially about the independent scene. Their music analysis, the discovery of the months that are shared in a playlist (available on Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music) and a rich collection of essays on the music scene of today provides a really good cover of broader themes than just French independent hip hop.
The icing on the cake is obviously their music tour that features different artists at each destination and help them create a stronger community along with discovering new talents ( and a very cool merch!)
In short, 1863 assembles a lot of different spaces of the music scene and does not only focus on the mere fact of discovering new talents : they provide data, thoughts on the music industry and concrete things to help people to get into this rich independent French scene. 1863’s DNA is very much close to the independent scene.
I can’t resist to share with you TAMBORA, their first mixtape released in 2021 that features artists who are now more “mainstream” that is composed on “sunny” tracks and more “nocturnal ones” (their words). Artists like La Fève, Lala & Ce (one of my personal favorites), JeuneSaint and Jäde are now more well-known in the music industry.
If your cup of tea isn’t french hip hop, don’t hesitate to take a look at SHIMMYA, a French media that covers the US hip hop independent scene!
My recommandation of this week — along with TAMBORA — would be to check Lala&Ce, a french female rapper ! My favorite track of her would be Parapluie! Her track on Tambora is also very good and is also a featuring with another rapper I like a lot Jäde : Tout d’un coup.
Have a good week,
P.
