1997: IAM, L’École de Micro d’Argent
By Ty Williams
CDs in hand, I stepped outside of the record store into the warm sunshine. I was in Lisbon, Portugal in July of 1998 with some friends from my church. My first marriage was crumbling (as was my faith) and I was half escaping the pain, half exploring what the world outside my gloomy home could be like. The Portuguese sun was healing, as was all of the new music I was discovering. Thanks to a helpful sales rep at the Lisbon Virgin Megastore, who was into French hip-hop, I brought home the soundtrack to a film I hadn’t seen, Luc Besson’s Taxi.
A French rap group named IAM curated the album for Besson. It featured some of IAM’s own music, as well as rap and R&B artists from Marseille, where the film is set, and others from throughout France. The Taxi soundtrack was the most-played music in my car and the house. One of my favorite songs was track 12, IAM’s pulsating anthem, “Marseile la Nuit.”
This was not necessarily music to heal a broken heart or restore one’s faith in God, but it was music that transported me. I didn’t care where it transported me, just somewhere happier. IAM and friends were happy to oblige.
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Rappers Akhenaton (née Phillipe Fragione) and Shurik’n (née Geoffroy Mussard) grew up in the immigrant communities of the Mediterranean city of Marseille, France. The weekly ferry between Oran, Algeria, and Marseille brought a constant stream of food, people and music from North Africa. They both grew up on melodramatic French pop and American folk and rock, alongside popular and traditional Berber music from across the Mediterranean. In the 1980s, hip-hop reached the ears of Fragione and Mussard, along with their friend Éric Mazel (later to become DJ Kheops). Fragione started making regular trips to New York City to hang out at the famous Latin Quarter club and meet many of the founders and culture-keepers of N.Y. hip-hop. Rubbing elbows in the Big Apple paid off as Fragione landed a guest verse on Choice MC’s “Let’s Make Some Noise” B-side under the name Chill Phil.
Fragione was never going to be a famous rapper in the States, but he knew that he was on to something big if he took his talent and connections back to France. He returned to Marseille, linked up with Mussard and Mazel and formed the group B.Boys Stance. Fragione converted from Catholicism to Islam and changed his stage name from Chill Phil to Akhenaton. In 1989, the B.Boys trio added Malek Brahimi (MC Freeman) and changed their name to IAM, an acronym for Imperial Asiatic Men.
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I did a lot of traveling in 1998. In October of that year, I found myself with the same church friends, this time in Montreal. I did a lot of solo scouting of the city and soon found myself in front of the Cinema Cinéplex Odeon, giddily buying a ticket to see Taxi. The movie was alright, a French action/comedy, but hearing IAM’s soundtrack in Dolby stereo was like going to church. I spoke French, but not well enough to understand the rapid-fire slang of rap records. Nevertheless, I understood the groove. I could clearly hear the intricate rhyme patterns; I could understand the feel, the spirit. Back home, I was screamed at in English by my partner, scolded in English by church elders, fingers wagged in English by family, saddling me with the blame for my own abuse. Listening to half-understood tales of the French urban landscape felt like a relief and an escape, no matter where I was listening.
With the songs ringing in my head, I left the cinema and headed down Rue St. Catherine Ouest to Sam the Record Man to see if they carried any IAM CDs. They did, and IAM’s seminal 1997 album, L’École du Micro D’Argent was still a hot seller in the French-speaking province of Québec. Even before hearing the album, I think a heavenly chorus may have rung out as I carried the shrink-wrapped CD to the register.
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In the late ‘80s, early ‘90s, hip-hop hit France like a freight train. Rap was everywhere and especially connected with the African and Arab diaspora living in the banlieues, or suburbs ringing metropolitan centers in France. (In France, the city or rural areas are the more desirable areas to live for the middle and affluent classes. French suburbs, unlike American ones, are where the less affluent, and immigrant populations are resigned.)
Early, homegrown rap in most of Europe was often recorded by white artists and sounded like what one might expect from early appropriation of a new Black genre; clumsy, corny rhymes placed over a straight 4/4 house-music beat. France was one of the first places outside the U.S. to really embrace the new art form and in the banlieues, immigrant youth made it their own, borrowing the sampled, boom-bap style of American rap, with stories of immigrant alienation over mournful French film scores.
IAM’s first album showed promise. The crew came out of the gate with a strong Afrocentric vibe and released two singles, “Tam-Tam de l’Afrique”and “Red, Black & Green,” but neither one made it to the French charts. Nearly all respected French hip-hop was coming out of the Paris banlieues, and hustle as they may, these kids from the South were not yet making waves. It was all “Paname”(slang for Paris) and few had discovered Planète Mars (slang for Marseille) just yet.
By the mid-90s, rappers such as MC Solaar were having crossover success, reaching #4 on the French charts with “Le Nouveau Western,” a reinterpretation of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot’s “Bonnie and Clyde.” Suprême NTM was quickly becoming the French N.W.A., with their brash, no-apologies style, repping the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
IAM would not be deterred by France’s seeming affection of Parisian rap. In 1994, they released their second album, Ombre est Lumière, whose first single would put Planète Mars on the map. “Je Danse le Mia” was a back-in-the-day jam that relived the heady days of ‘80’s breakdance battles, over a sample of George Benson’s “Gimme the Night.” The single would hit #1 on the French charts and be their only #1 single, so far, in their long career.
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Back home in Columbus, I played the hell out of the Taxi soundtrack and L’École de Micro D’Argent. My little Mazda Protegé had a shitty system and couldn’t handle what I was putting it through, but it didn’t have a choice. When you live in a situation of abuse from a domestic partner, you crave to leave the house, just for some room to breathe. Driving aimlessly around Ohio and listening to those rhymes and beats from across the sea, in a tongue that wasn’t my own, felt like there was more to life than the pain I lived daily.
There’s not much of a French-speaking community in Columbus, so there weren’t many people with whom I could share these treasures of exotic hip-hop. That made these discs feel more special. Maybe I thought that made me more special. I loved being the weirdo pulling up to work or in a drive-through blasting French rap tunes.
A few years later, my wife would leave and we would file divorce papers. My emotions were still raw, but there was some sense of relief and a feeling of hope for heaIing. I was still listening to those two IAM albums on a regular basis. One night, a group of friends talked me into going out to a club to take my mind off of things. Lots of alcohol was consumed, and as the lights came on at the end of the night, we filed out of the club, I slurred a “hello” to a young woman. She flashed a broad smile and said, “Bonjour!”
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IAM were a crew of five after adding Imhotep (Pascal Perez) and Kephren (François Mendy) and had two albums and a #1 hit under their belts. The group toured and worked on new material. Akhenaton and DJ Kheops released solo albums. Akhenaton and Shurik’n teamed up with fellow Mars MCs, Fonky Family to record “Bad Boys de Marseille” and filmed a video with the whole collective in New York.
While in New York, Akhenaton and Shurik’n, the Lennon & McCartney of the group, brought new material with them and booked sessions with Nicholas Sansano and Dan Wood at the famed Greene Street Recording Studio in Manhattan. Greene Street had recorded such legends as George Benson, James Brown and Chaka Khan, but had become a noted hip-hop studio and after hosting sessions with Run DMC, Public Enemy, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Heavy D, Beastie Boys and others. Legendary producer Pete Rock was a regular and popped in during some of IAM’s sessions. There’s actually a grainy YouTube video of Rock and others freestyling with Shurik’n over the beat that would become IAM’s “Petit Frère.”
The ambiance and the ghosts of legends at Greene Street helped make magic for the Mars MCs. They had at least eight solid tracks in the can. Nicholas Sansano, whose deft hand had helped craft such a diverse array of hits, from Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” to Sonic Youth’s “Daydream Nation,” guided the rappers and the faders to the best quality sound IAM had yet achieved. New York rappers and producers were hanging out with them, spitting freestyles –– it was the energy that the young Marseillais needed to bring to their next album.
Then the money ran out. Akhenaton and Shurik’n were unable to mix and master the new tracks at Greene Street. They had nothing left but return tickets and tapes of their sessions. They headed back to France.
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Khady (name changed) was at the club that night with friends and new to Columbus, getting ready to study at Ohio State. Khady had a perfect combination of Parisian hipster apathy and an ever-smiling zest for life. I was smitten. We went out the next day. Then two days after that. Then we were together pretty much all of the time. Senegalese-born, Paris-raised, she spoke flawless English, and she helped improve my French during our time together. She was impressed that, as an American, I knew who IAM was, let alone played their music in the car every time we were together.
Khady and I lived together and learned together. Her Parisian accent began to fade when she spoke English. She started to forget the Wolof words for certain things. Then she started to forget the French words for other things. She had forgotten the reason she came here, to study and get an American degree, not to get booed up with an enthusiastic Francophile. We split up. It was rocky at first, but we remained amicable and continue to be close friends to this day; us and our new spouses.
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Back in France, the IAM robot reassembled. The crew packed up, took the tapes and hopped on the TGV to Paris. They arrived at Studio Méga and handed the Greene Street tapes to the engineer. IAM recruited American producer and engineer Prince Charles Alexander to man the desk at Méga and mix their Greene Street sessions. Alexander had produced and mixed hits for Mary J. Blige, Puff Daddy, Notorious B.I.G., X-Clan, Jodeci and many more. IAM didn’t want a banlieu mixtape, they wanted a damn masterpiece. They knew that the tracks and the rhymes were top-tier, they needed the mix and the presentation to match their skill level.
Akenaton and Shurik’n left New York without any cash, but they carried a gold mine on the plane. At Greene Street, they had recorded collaborations with Rhazel, “The Godfather of Noyze,” and Wu-Tang affiliates Dreddy Kreuger, Prodigal Sunn and Timbo King. They had produced the core of the new album with certified New York hitmakers and flew another one to Paris to finish the rest of the tracks, mix and master it all. By 1997, France was the number two hip-hop market in the entire world, second only to the United States. The stakes for this latest project were clear.
In March 1997, the planète Mars crew released their third studio album, L’École du Micro D’Argent, or the School of the Silver Mic. The cover featured a painting of a samurai army on horseback. In the background was a red sky, either dawn or dusk. The Warriors bearing their sashimono or the standards, bearing the markings of the warriors’ clans. In this case, the sashimonos bore the logo of IAM’s Coté Obscur (Dark Side) label. The party looked over a battlefield that was about to be bloodied. The lead warrior’s horse paws at the earth and the warrior’s sword catches a glint of the light from the sun.
IAM was launching Micro like a confident army launching an attack on a whole industry. The result was a massacre. The album peaked at number 3 on the French charts, but made big numbers. To this day, it has sold more than 1.5 million copies and still remains the best-selling French hip-hop album of all time.
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Khady and I would occasionally talk by phone or have Skype hangouts. I visited her in New York. She and her boyfriend (later, husband) would rent a cabin in Hocking Hills to get out of the N.Y. rat-race and reconnect with Ohio friends, including me. Early in 2013, I read that IAM was doing a show in New York. I excitedly called Khady, “Did you see? IAM is doing a show this summer in Central Park!” I think she squealed, then said, “Dude! You’re totally coming to N.Y. We’re going to this show!” I totally went to New York that summer.
IAM were playing the Summer Stage in June. Opening for them would be hometown hero, Rakim. You read that correctly. A French rap group was playing Central Park and THE GOD MC was playing support.
Khady and I were ecstatic. She had never seen IAM when she was growing up in the Paris banlieu of Orly and I never thought I would have a chance to see the French megastars in the States. The weather was perfect, the set was long and included lots of hits from Micro, and their other albums. Kheops and Imhotep had dueling DJ stages. Akhentaton and Shurik’n stalked the stage like hunting lions. Graphics of their albums and samurai and Egyptian iconography flashed and morphed on giant screens behind them. It was a rare opportunity, given who the group was and where their fanbase is concentrated. My greatest regret is losing the photos and videos I took at the show after my computer crashed. Fortunately, there are a lot of fan videos of the show on YouTube. Grooving with the capacity crowd on a warm June evening, it was clear that IAM’s appeal was international. And intergenerational.
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IAM went on to further success. Their follow-up to Micro would be Revior Un Printemps, and would feature Method Man and Redman, Syleena Johnson and Dangerously In Love-era Beyoncé. The RZA would then tap IAM for his 2003 solo album, The World According to RZA, on the single “Seul Face à Lui.” Printemps and the next five albums would all chart in the top-ten, two of them at #1, Révolution and Saison 5 peaking at 3 and 2, respectively.
In 2008, IAM performed their 20th anniversary concert at the Giza Pyramids and premiered the film of the event at the Cannes Film Festival the same year. The band is still recording and performing and its members are still producing solo projects. The pupils at School of the Silver Mic have become its masters.
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Khady earned her degrees, became an administrator and teacher in The Bronx, in China, and now in Dakar, Senegal. We are both happily married to our respective spouses and we both still love hip-hop. There are turns in life, sometimes small ones, that change utterly everything. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I didn’t run off to Portugal in 1998. I wonder what would have happened if I never encountered the Taxi soundtrack that led me to find L’École du Micro D’Argent. An album didn’t change my destiny. But it could have influenced it. It’s possible.
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Notable Tracks from L’École du Micro D’Argent
“L’École du Micro D’Argent” : The album opener gets right down to the business of lyrical warfare. The track starts in meditation, preparation for the moment, then the call to arms, to slay rival MCs. It’s the heavy hitter that could be the only choice to kick off the album.
“Nés Sous la Mème Étoile” : translated – Born Under the Same Star. This track wonders what determines the fate of some to be privileged and others to starve, all while born under the same sky.
“La Saga” : This is where Dreddy Kreuger and company join Planète Mars. The Wu Tang influence is unmistakable here.
“Petit Frére” / “Little Brother” : speaks to youth, asking them to examine the path that they choose and stay away from crime. The video shows a young Arab boy and his homies from the Marseille projects stealing a car, but then giving rides to people in the neighborhood who don’t have transportation.
“L’Empire du Coté Obscur” / “The Empire of the Dark Side” : uses a Star Wars motif, complete with quotes from the French dub of the movies. The song and the video place IAM in the role of anti-heroes, slaying their enemies and growing ever more powerful.
“Bouger la Tête”/ “Bob your head”: is a love story between the MCs and the hip-hop culture that they love. The story tells of the discovery of rap and breakdancing and how they transformed into the artist who create culture and not just consumers of it.
“Demain, C’est Loin” / “Tomorrow is Far Away” : is a meditation on the choices available to the crew’s MCs, as well as the citizens of Marseille’s banlieues. The epic 8-minute track is the album’s closer. Its length seems to suggest that IAM had a whole lot more to say, but they had to cut it off at 16 tracks.
Spotify Playlist for this article:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2mTWN6ohvk13jl4WNpwI7D?si=TqJbwPvrTbi1z3zeOyNgZg
Ty J. Williams is currently an English/Creative Writing undergrad at The Ohio State University after 20 years in the corporate world. He balances far too many hobbies with writing, school, his four kids, and being a taste-tester for his wife- a chef. Ty’s writing can be seen at Black Bough Poetry, Neologism Poetry, Columbus Alive, Fourth & Sycamore, Sonder Midwest and 68to05.com.
Twitter: @tywrites1
Instagram: @tjwwrites