40 years ago, French rap was an emerging and very underground genre. Today, it  has been dominating the French music scene since the last decade. Indeed, in 2024, the rapper Werenoi – who passed away last May – was the biggest seller of the year, with 276,900 albums sold. Appeared in the 1980s by mimicking the United States, French hip-hop is now one of the most popular music genres in France. Rap music went from an underground to a mainstream genre in about 30 years. Moreover, French rappers can fill in the Stade de France for a concert, as for example Ninho, Jul or PLK recently. 

From underground to mainstream

Long viewed as a subculture, French rap is now a genre in its own right. The 2000s were marked by the emergence of gangsta rap, a deliberately brutal genre that often recounts the difficult daily lives of rappers, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds. This image has long been associated with rap and is one of the clichés associated with this musical genre. However, it has been diversifying in recent years. Rap is expanding and diversifying through interaction with other musical genres, particularly techno.

Techno is a genre of electronic music that emerged in the mid-1980s in the United States, around the same time as hip-hop. Originally from Chicago, this genre has spread worldwide and is now very popular. We could even say that techno is the symbol of a certain type of nightlife, such as club nights and wild raves, and nowadays the number of DJs mixing techno is considerable.

Two opposite worlds

Thus, this mix of rap and techno may seem strange, even unnatural. Indeed, the two genres have very often been opposed and confronted. These two styles of music do not have much in common, and their audiences are very different. Historically, techno listeners have been a well-off, educated audience, often white. In contrast, rap was initially seen as a socially conscious genre, describing the poverty in suburbs and neighbourhoods, which attracted a more disadvantaged audience, originally from minority groups (African, Arab, etc.). In the 2000s, it would have seemed unthinkable that rap and techno could collaborate and create new sounds. One example is the rapper Rohff, who in 2004, in his song 94, said: ‘Fuck techno, it’s music for drug addicts’ (“Fuck la Techno, c’est de la musique de drogués”).

The emergence of techno rap and frapcore

Twenty years later, the French music scene has changed. Several French rappers now assert their affinity with techno by rapping mainly, if not exclusively, to techno beats. One example is the rapper Winnterzuko, one of the pioneers of this genre in France. This rapper offers rap tracks, but with much more digital sounds that are unique to him, all with a particular techno kick. We can also mention Selug, web7 and Luther, rappers who are emerging at the moment but are starting to gain some notoriety. In these tracks, coupled with techno instrumentals, we also very often find effects on the voice. One example is autotune, a plug-in that allows rappers to sing without hitting any wrong notes, but which gives a slightly ‘robotic’ sound. Autotune needs no introduction and is now mainly used by the most mainstream rappers.

IBM 5100 – Winnterzuko:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBSpAPi5KlE

We have seen that French rap now draws its inspiration from techno styles. On the other hand, techno is seeing the development of a new musical genre, frapcore, a contraction of French rap and hardcore. This genre consists of remixing rap sounds over techno instrumentals. It is a genre much closer to techno, as the main creators of this genre are DJs. This musical trend originated with the Casual Gabberz collective. Created in 2013, this collective made a name for itself on the Parisian club scene by remixing French rap over Gabber-style productions, a subgenre of the hardcore techno movement. Artists such as DJ Von Bikrav and Evil Grimace made a name for themselves with the help of this collective. However, most of these artists have remained on the underground scene. But recently, other French DJs have taken up the frapcore mantle. Indeed, Parisian DJ Urumi has been making a name for herself lately. She has produced two EPs called Rap to Rave, featuring samples from rappers such as Gazo, Aya Nakamura and Ateyaba, all set to hardcore techno instrumentals. Urumi is also a producer but remains within the frapcore genre. She has already collaborated with several rap artists and is planning further collaborations. The DJ has recently gained notoriety and mixes regularly in Paris. Thus, the mix between rap and techno also works the other way around. It is interesting to note that these two movements developed at around the same time. We can also deduce that the phenomenon of these two styles of music coming together is common and reciprocal.

Toki (Gazo Techno Cover) – Urumi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rll0odr5Ftc&list=RDEM9cUfc5F0hSXAdmskJWVucQ&index=4 

To continue, some rappers have pushed the boundaries even further in terms of blending genres. This is the case, for example, with rapper Zissou, who performs exclusively to hardcore techno beats. Together with his friend Coulure, a producer, he got his start at techno parties. Zissou used to rap his lyrics in his head at these kinds of events. He then realized and decided that he should record his own music by rapping over hardcore techno instrumentals. This results in very fast tracks, so it’s a difficult exercise. For now, Zissou is quite unique in the French rap scene, but we can assume that other artists will follow his example. It is therefore difficult to categorise the rapper’s fans: are they more techno or rap listeners? Here, the boundary is very blurred. This example shows that the interactions between these two genres are multiple and take various, sometimes complex forms. This seems normal to me, as these different genres and sub-genres are relatively young.

A l’abordage – Zissou:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuU5zZZ-wXQ

Towards a mainstream recognition?

So far, the artists we have mentioned are not (yet) mainstream. So we might wonder whether this child of French rap and techno is legitimate and has a future. This year, one event proved that this sub-genre does indeed have a future, as it was brought to the forefront. Last May, rapper Vald released a ‘reloaded’ version of his album Pandemonium, released earlier this year, in collaboration with the producers Todiefor and Vladimir Cauchemar. The artist offered a brand new interpretation of his album, which originally had rap sounds. The tracks were remixed into techno versions, with some even becoming hardcore techno (for example, ‘PROZACZOPIXAN Reloaded’). Such a reinterpretation of an album by a French rap artist is completely unprecedented, even risky. Vald is a rapper who has been well established on the French scene for about 10 years, and suddenly the artist is offering a rewriting of his album that has nothing to do with rap. Personally, I think Vald has delivered an unprecedented performance in the history of French rap. We don’t yet have the perspective to really see how the project has been received, but this promotion of frapcore will most likely help to democratise the genre.

Vald was able to test his project this summer during his tour of French-speaking festivals, and reactions were very mixed. Some fans fully embraced this shift to techno for the duration of the project, while others, more critical, fear that the artist is distancing himself from his original genre, French rap. Nevertheless, the artist stated in an interview that he was trying to find a balance between the two versions of his latest project. Vald reassured his fans and did not announce that he was switching to techno music, far from it. The artist is right to try and reinterpret his album with sounds that are foreign to rap. For example, the rapper released a videoclip of his song PROZACZOPIXAN, with one verse from the original song and the other from the “reloaded” version. The duality of the song is perfectly depicted in this clip. On 29 November, the artist will perform at La Défense Arena in Paris, and the concert is already shaping up to be unprecedented. The artist will perform his albums, even the oldest ones, but he will also most certainly play his ‘reloaded’ tracks. The idea of seeing 45,000 people dancing to both rap and hardcore techno while listening to one of the most important rappers of the 2010s would have been unthinkable twenty years ago. This shows that the genre is very rich, constantly evolving, and becoming increasingly diverse.

PROZACZOPIXAN – Vald:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjzD3LkrDSQ

A cultural fusion shaping the future of French music

Thus, to conclude, the mix and the interactions with the other music genres make the rap broader and richer. There are already some rap subgenres such as drill, jersey, new bouyon or new jazz. Maybe some subgenres, as for example frapcore, could one day become a brand new music genre. This is a question of taste and audiences. Today, rap and techno auditors have more in common than they think, as we discussed above. These interactions tend to make French rap even more mainstream. Because it is still a genre mostly listened to by young people. Due to the stereotypes rap carries for 30 years, some people refuse to interest themselves in this rich genre. I know after all, it is a question of personal taste. But these subgenres should be more known. In my opinion, rap music is for everyone, you sometimes just need to dig a little bit to find the genre corresponding to your taste. French rap and techno music keeps being distinct music genres, because they have their own habits, codes and audiences. But I am pretty sure that frapcore will still develop and grow in the coming years. As an opening, rap music also interacts with other music genres such as rock music. The current ambassador of this movement is Post Malone in the United States, but some French rappers (see Youv Dee for example) tend to rap on rock instrumentals. As you probably understood, I really love French rap because of its diversity. Seeing some subgenres like frapcore emerging makes me really enthusiastic about the future evolutions of French rap. I think that the interactions between genres (musically speaking or not) can only make those genres richer. Because after all, culture is always a question of interactions between several points of views.

If you are curious to discover more about frapcore or rap with techno inspiration, here is a short recommendation of songs I like.

• Web7 – Visages
• Luther – uSquad
• Selug – Jdevrais être fier
• Winnterzuko – IBM500
• Winnterzuko – Wannacry2
• Urumi – Toki (Gazo Techno Cover)
• Zissou – A l’abordage
• Casual Gabberz – F le 17
• Vald – RAP RIP (RELOADED)
• Vald – PROZACZOPIXAN (RELOADED)

Written by Noé Delhommeau

Sources:
https://www.radiofrance.fr/mouv/techno-et-rap-francais-deux-genres-incompatibles-7610976 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqNfk_xR1I0&t=2s