trust in Under the influenceKool Shen in Overdoseforest in Crackling under the neon lights and soon Orelsan and Bigflo & Oli in the next one Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom… More than ever, French rap has established itself as a breeding ground for French cinema and a privileged source of inspiration for directors.
Since the success of two-time César nominee Joey Starr (for The dance of the actresses Y polishes), it is no longer uncommon to see rappers emerging from the ghetto of suburban movies to play the role of big names in the 7th Art. Kool Shen thus interpreted, together with Isabelle Huppert, a character inspired by the scoundrel Christophe Rocancourt in abuse of weakness (2013) by Catherine Breillat.
The young Sadek shared the screen with the sacred monster of cinema Gérard Depardieu in the drama Tour de France (2016). And Nekfeu took his first steps in everything separates us (2017) with Catherine Deneuve. Pressure she handled with disconcerting ease, recalls director Thierry Klifa: “I never felt like she was falling behind. At the end of the day, Catherine Deneuve told me, ‘I’m fine, do it.'”
“A natural aura and charisma”
Rappers have the advantage of being comfortable in front of the camera. “Since the tests, Nekfeu was great,” recalls Thierry Klifa. “He knows how to move. He knows what projects the image of him.”
“Rappers are used to putting themselves on stage in music videos,” says duo FGKO, who directed Bosh in the thriller “Du crackling under the neons.” “They already have an aura and a natural charisma. They are not afraid to come out into the light.”
Less for his image than for his voice, Orelsan was chosen, in 2009, to voice the hero of the animated film. mutafukaz (2018), however, emphasizes the director Run: “He had a less serious voice than the current one. Leaner, sharper. She wanted the weird voice intonations of hers. I was interested in relation to the morphology of my character, Angelino”.
Choosing a rapper brings an extra dimension. Orelsan’s presence at the head of professional dubbers was reinforced in mutafukaz the tension between the hero and his enemies: “Orelsan, in Angelino, offers a gap with the other characters in terms of the musicality of the phrases and the words”, sums up Run, who struggled to impose the rapper in the cast. “It was a sticking point.”
“Do something that isn’t rap”
Rappers do well artistically in film, and vice versa. Driver, who landed a role opposite Sara Forestier and Roschdy Zem in One night (2012), he caught on very quickly, starting in the 1990s, when he saw American rap stars making their way in Hollywood. He saw it as an alternative and a way to change the prejudices associated with rap: “I just wanted us to be able to do more than just rap.”
Cinema allows a rapper to broaden his audience, but also to “prove himself [qu’il] can [jouer] more than three minutes in a clip”, emphasizes Driver. It is also a professional challenge: “When I enter this medium, I have to write a resume, so I don’t take it badly when they offer me quite secondary and cliché roles. I accept them.”
Twenty years later, things have changed for the better. A new generation of creators who have grown up with rap appreciates its nuances more than their predecessors. Having also become the most listened to music in France, rap can influence the financing of a project. “The production lets you know that it’s good to have personalities, whether they’re well-known actors or rappers,” the FGKO duo specifies.
From “fuck the police” to police roles
Proof that rap is now more accepted, auteur cinema no longer ignores it. Emmanuel Mouret called JoeyStarr to embody in Other life (2014) an electrician who falls in love with a famous pianist. Quentin Dupieux entrusted small roles to Orelsan in In the office (2018) and Romeo Elvis in jaws (2021). The time when MC Jean Gab’1 played the thieves in suburb 13 (2004) is a long way off.
The traditional image of the rapper has been reversed on screen. Kool Shen and JoeyStarr, who called in 1993 to “fuck the police,” sided with order. The first was a colonel in white soldier (2014) and member of Narcotics in Overdose. The second played the policeman in The infernal tower of Montparnasse (2001), Our friends the police (2004) polishes (2011) and foal 45 (2014). He was also a bodyguard in gorillas (2015).
Other rappers followed suit. Booba turned down a pimp role in Mac (2010). Medina was a lawyer in I love you too (2021) by Inès Reg, opera singer MB14 in Tenor (2022) and Sams supervising in student services office (2019). Fianso put in a very convincing performance as toxic freediving champion in Under the influencefall box on Netflix.
Nekfeu’s condition
The discipline displayed by Fianso or Nekfeu in their films impressed the film industry and changed the image of rappers. “After accepting the script, the only condition Nekfeu asked for, and which I found completely legitimate, was that he wanted to do some tests to make sure it lived up to what he expected,” says Thierry Klifa. “He didn’t want to be ridiculous at all.”
“It was a way of testing each other and getting a little bit of a feel for what was in my stomach, but I didn’t worry too much about it,” he adds. “I had asked him to work with a trainer before the shoot. They worked a lot, a lot together. And on set it was perfect.”
“They play roles that are very far from what they really are and it is an evolution. I think it’s good. It gives good hope for the future of rappers in movies, especially if it starts to work,” Driver enthuses. “My dream is to play a role away from who I really am, away from the people around me. When it happened, that was the moment I enjoyed the most.”
Hard to break the image
But the days when rappers routinely played mobsters have yet to be fully resolved. Difficult to fight against stereotypes, especially when in the cinema an actor is usually given a role in keeping with his physique. “We didn’t take Bosh to play a Crazy Horse dancer,” the FGKO duo laugh. “But now that we know he’s good, we’re going to offer him a different role.”
If many rappers don’t escape suburban movies, it’s a conscious choice to maintain credibility with their fans. “It is true that for a rapper it can be difficult to accept playing something that is far from the image of him in rap,” acknowledges the FGKO duo. Within Crackling under the neon lightsBosh refused to shoot a scene in which his mother had to slap his character.
“At one point, he is pressured by his mother, who slaps him. We did it once with the slap and then he told us to stop. It’s not so much that it hurt him, but it was because of his street credibility”: if we saw him receive slapped across the face in the movie, your audience would think you’re weak. Nowadays, it’s all about image. And you can’t do anything with this image.”
Nekfeu, for his part, had “no requirement, no request in relation to the character or in relation to the setting, no particular relation to his image as a rapper”, insists Thierry Klifa. But he “asked to be called in the credits by his real name, Ken Samaras, and not his stage name. There were two personalities for him: on the one hand the rapper and on the other the actor. It wasn’t Nekfeu in this. movie, but Ken”.
Booba vs. Kaaris Transmission
If there is still a long way to go -especially for female rappers, forgotten by the cinema except for Diam’s in thugs (2009), Pan’o in max and lenny (2014) and KT Goric in brooklyn (2014) – some rappers are starting to take control of the cameras to tell their own stories. After like a magnet of IAM (2000), Abd al Malik made May Allah bless France (2014), followed by Kery James with Travellers (2019), which was successful on Netflix.
Although record sales do not guarantee success in theaters (244,633 tickets for How far is it with Orelsan, 166,665 viewers per everything separates us with Nekfeu), rappers are demanding more and more cinematic experiences.
“We feel in Bosh a true desire for cinema,” confirms the FGKO duo. “I was even a little frustrated that I didn’t have more scenes!”
But after the success of Valid, it is perhaps on television that the Eldorado of rappers is found. Booba will premiere in 2023 on Prime Video ourikaa series about the riots of 2005. His rival Kaaris will unveil, in 2023, on Netflix, the king of shadows, a film inspired by a Malian legend. There they will find a wider audience than Nekfeu, whose second film for the cinema, The escapehasn’t been seen for three years.
Source: BFM TV
