The meeting of two worlds, French rap and that of the United States. Two worlds which could become one but which sometimes struggle to combine. Proof of this are the numerous collaborations that were not necessarily successful or the featurings aborted due to repeated lack of respect on the part of American rappers. First of all, let’s review several proven facts before drawing conclusions.
If the story between Gazo and Offset has not yet been fully revealed, it would seem to be once again a lack of respect on the part of the American who arrived well late for the filming of the music video for their piece. A story that is strangely reminiscent of that experienced by Niska a few years ago with Rich The Kid. This pushed the rapper to speak on the subject during his interview Clique in 2019: “They don’t respect French rappers, for them Paris is Fashion Week.”. A few years later, it was at Konbini that he returned to this collaboration:
“He did something crazy to me. He arrived on the clip doing the phew American. Bad behavior, he looked at us so it was me who then said that we wouldn’t release the feat.”
An act far from being isolated since French rap is full of anecdotes in this style. We think of Kalash Criminel who notably confided in Rapelite on his aborted track “Ngannou” with Bobby Shmurda, explaining that the American rapper had asked him for 10,000 euros to release their featuring. Initially, several months before this request, it was agreed that the piece would be done without any exchange of money on either side. A last minute change which will lead Kalash Criminel to decide, like Niska, not to ultimately release the song instead of paying the American. Long before this disappointment, French rap had already paid the price for the lack of respect from its American peers, but this time the song is still available.
In 1996, Nas approached NTM for a featuring. “Affirmative Action” will be present on the reissue of their album Paris under the bombs. However, everything is not so rosy. Tensions appear during the filming of the clip and for GQJoey Starr looks back on one of the first Franco-American feats : “I think he thought we were jerks. At the time, Sony didn’t do it right. […] There are lots of little stories around this thing internally, it could have gone a lot better.” And last example as a cherry on the cake, in 2021, Young Thug took a nice dig at rappers from London and Paris, confirming what we already knew, American rappers don’t care about us while the European public gradually comes away: “It’s not like those guys from London or Paris. The guys probably lived in mansions or hotels. You didn’t do anything hot in the street.”
Obviously, certain featurings of this type have established themselves as successful pieces, Kaaris feat. Future, Ol Kainry feat. Raekwon, Future and Don Toliver, IAM feat. Sunz Of Man on “La Saga”, Hamza feat. Offset despite the criticism. In short, there is no shortage of examples. But then, what could possibly explain this lasting tension and this disrespect coming from across the Channel? What stands out is the near recurrence of a French demand for the United States, we think of Gradur with Migos or Chief Keef, supporting, in view of the US specter alone, a need for the French to feater with them, rather than the opposite.
Commercial interests therefore come into play. We lined up big money like Ninho and Lil Baby recently, to have an American appear in their tracklist. The naturalness of collaboration, the basis of music, is therefore relegated to the background. Coupled with this, an obvious geographical distance between the two artists who can be stuck by the language barrier or by cultural differences in the way of working or conceptualizing their music for example. This gives, in summary, the result that we have in front of us. Titles taken a little over the leg by US rappers who do not see French hip-hop at its true value. Fating with one or more American artists therefore requires great vigilance in one’s choices and real intentions. In the best case scenario, agreement must be prioritized above all else, something difficult to do for all the reasons mentioned above. In the worst case, just wander around looking for a rapper who really wants to perform with our Frenchies (and there’s no shortage of them).
