Keny Arkana

Pour Keny Arkana, toute rage est constructive, la lutte n'est jamais une fin en soi, et la contestation est inséparable de l'introspection.

Rap ? Violent words, a social chronicle without complacency at a time of the politically correct and a wishywashy consensus. Twenty years after its first babblings in the popular quarters of New York, rap has imposed its presence beyond the borders. Je rap donc je suis (I Rap Therefore I Am) goes around five different towns where it meets rappers driven by the same motivation. In Paris and its suburbs, Marseille and its districts, Algiers, London or Berlin, rappers move, play, record, teach... And above all, they talk. Outside of any promotional context, the present-day heralds of French hip-hop, from La Rumeur to IAM, speak about the role of rap, the environment in which it was born, boredom, the feeling of belonging to a sacrificed generation, drugs in districts of towns, immigration, parents, political and social actors, the police, school, writing, money, the parallel economy, violence...

La saga du hip hop marseillais, phénomène musical, culturel et social qui, en trente ans, a bâti une histoire à succès inédite. IAM, Soprano, la Fonky Family, JuL, et une dizaine d’autres rappeurs, compositeurs et producteurs ont accepté de raconter la genèse et l’épanouissement de ce mouvement de musique urbaine qui remplit stades et festivals et colonise cours d’école comme soirées de quinquagénaires. On les suit dans leur quotidien d’artistes, entre studios et grands concerts.

A chronological and thematic history of French rap, told through a list of 11 short films, emblematic titles from 1990 to the present day. Each episode ends with an original cover by an emerging French artist or rapper.