ABSTRACT
The rapid rise to success of MC Solaar in the 1990s represents the latest wave of importation and acclimatisation of American popular music styles in the world of chanson. MC Solaar is the very American stage name of Claude M'Barali: American if only because the 'MC' used by his models, such as MC Hammer, originally meant 'Master of Ceremonies' and refers to the origins of the style as a form of disc-jockeying. From the beginning of his career he was seen by the French media as the embodiment of the social and cultural melting-pot of the disaffected suburbs of French cities, scene of social problems which have occasionally degenerated into well-publicised violence. In practice, however, the rap of MC Solaar turns out to be reassuringly French and distinctively different from its American models. The subject matter of MC Solaar's texts ranges widely across a catalogue of contemporary themes and preoccupations.
