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.

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.

Reviews
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: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association *
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 and Contemporary France *
...a very useful work for future research on the ethnology of hip-hop. * Anthropologie Et Societes, Vol. 30, No. 2 (2006) *
...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. * The French Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9780810844315
Author Alain-Philippe Durand
Format Paperback
Page Count 176
Imprint Scarecrow Press
Publisher Scarecrow Press
Weight(grams) 245g
Dimensions(mm) 214mm * 144mm * 12mm