One of my favorite parts of French hip-hop is there’s almost always a blend of French, English and or another language. Make it seem super effortless and has a wide reach.
Closest the US has is English+Spanish/Spanglish. But not as widespread/popular.
Not that all rap should include English. Just very interesting that there’s enough of a comfortability with 2-3++ languages there that music can be made in that vein.
Growing up at an American school in an Arabic country that had been a French colony kids on my playground would effortlessly switch languages mid sentence when they weren’t sure of a word, and others had no issue following the switch. Even many decades later that fluidity amazes me.
Yes!! It’s incredible. My exposure to that isn’t as deep as yours but the experience I’ve had with it is very very interesting. That sounds like it was a really cool place to be and learn different cultures.
Makes you realize the power of being surrounded by multiple languages at a young age. It becomes such a natural thing.
