Camera Obscura

Camera Obscura 16.1 (2001) 77-96

Hip-Hop Cinema in France

Dominique Bluher

[Figures]

Thanks to Hugues Bazin's book, La culture hip-hop, ¹ the existence of hip-hop in France has been brought to light as an authentic cultural movement with its own philosophy and moral perspective. Hip-hop brings together a number of artistic practices and styles: music (rap, reggae, DJing, human beat-box); dance (of which break dancing and smurf are the best known); and graphics (tagging and graffiti art). These street arts were developed in the suburbs of Paris and other large French cities as part of a contemporary urban culture defined by lifestyle, slang, and fashion. While hip-hop originated in American cities in the 1970s as a cultural response to racism, it only arrived in France between 1982 and 1984. While at first French hip-hop simply imitated American styles, subsequently it rapidly developed its own means of expression proper to the French banlieue.

While its artistic force is now indisputable with respect to music and dance (the artistic value of tagging remains contested), the hip-hop movement is less often recognized as a cultural and social movement with a philosophy, indeed an ethics. ² For the most part, popular audiences in France are unaware that Afrika Bambaataa, the "founding father" of hip-hop in the US (or more precisely the Zulu Nation, which constitutes along with the [End Page 77] B. Boys one of the two essential poles of hip-hop) formulated a charter of around twenty laws of conduct. These precepts were to be observed primarily on the street and expressed through a street art that presents and conveys the aesthetic principles of hip-hop. Indeed, one of the primary characteristics of hip-hop style is that it be indissociably tied to a street ethics.

Legend has it that the birth of Zulu Nation was inspired by Afrika Bambaataa's reaction to the death of one of his best friends, struck down by police officers during a fight with a rival gang from the Bronx. Bambaataa quit his gang and threw himself into music where he was quickly recognized for his originality as a rap DJ and mixer. Strengthened by this experience, he sought to generalize his musical aesthetic by creating Zulu Nation as a peaceful alternative, based on creativity, to the violence of gang life. The Zulu National ethic proscribes all violent acts and abusive conduct, drugs (which may neither be sold nor consumed), vandalism, or involvement in criminal activity. It advocates a resolutely positive attitude toward life and a profound respect for others. Zulus dedicate themselves to developing a positive energy in order to have the will to survive and to be "fresh," that is, to make do in difficult socioeconomic contexts. Recognition of the other (or of difference) occurs necessarily through the acceptance of one's self. One has to be authentic in affirming, and not denying, one's multicultural and multiethnic identity so characteristic of contemporary urban life. ³

Respect for others is also expressed by channeling aggression, whether implicitly or explicitly, into a creative competitiveness defined by notions of rivalry and respect. As Georges Lapassade and Philippe Rousselot argue in their book, which is still the first and best study in French of rap: "This is the fundamental point of hip-hop culture; the word replaces the knife." ⁴ One is recognized by others neither through force nor wealth, but rather by the quality of one's artistic accomplishments. One seeks to perfect one's self, and to outdo others while nonetheless respecting other artists who have gained a certain notoriety. In this manner, it is equally unthinkable either to tag over someone else's work or even to sign a tag or paint graffiti if one has not yet acquired a certain level of skill. [End Page 78]

Beur Cinema

The hip-hop movement in France has not been accompanied by the production of independent films that claim to be the expression of a minority culture as, for example, it was with black independent filmmaking in the US in...