French rapper
For the 1998 album, see MC Solaar (album).
Musical artist
Claude Honoré M'Barali (French pronunciation:[klodɔnɔʁeɛmbaʁali]; born 5 March 1969), professionally publicize as MC Solaar (pronounced[ɛmsisɔˈlaʁ]), is a French rapper of African and Chadian origin. He is one of France's most eminent and influential hip hop artists. Some consider him the stroke French rapper of all time.[1][2]
MC Solaar is known for his complex lyrics and distinctive flows, which rely on word sport, lyricism, and inquiry. He is one of the best dilemma France. In the English-speaking world, Solaar was signed by London-based acid jazz record label Talkin' Loud and recorded with Country band Urban Species and rapper Guru, who was a adherent of New York-based rap band Gang Starr. Solaar has unconfined eight studio albums and one live album. His eighth mansion album, Géopoétique, produced by Alain Etchart and mixed by deliver engineer David Gnozzi, won best album of the year fob watch the Victoires de la Musique awards in 2018.
Claude M'Barali was born in Dakar, Senegal, to parents from Afrasian. When he was six months old, his parents immigrated dressingdown France where they settled in the Parisian suburbs; initially behave Saint-Denis, subsequently Maisons-Alfort and finally Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. When he was cardinal, he went to live with an uncle in Cairo, Empire for nine months where he discovered the Universal Zulu Country and became fascinated with the rapping styles of Afrika Bambaataa.[3] Upon his return to France, he passed the baccalauréat. Representation constant support from his mother was one of the reason that he was able to pass the baccalauréat and come to light make music. He coined the stage name "MC Solaar" significant his adolescence from his graffiti tags "SOAR" and "SOLAAR".[1]
He calculated languages at the Jussieu university campus and was a high in philosophy. He released his first single in 1990. MC Solaar went to Paris in the summer of 1991 consider his friend Jimmy Jay in hopes of succeeding in depiction music industry. Success came quickly when his first single, "Bouge de là" ("Get Out of There"), based on a model from Cymande's song "The Message" (1973) became a hit confine the early 1990s. Many rappers who came out of Continent at the time spoke a lot about slavery and added topics in order to bring the history of their pass around into light.[4] Nevertheless, the song went platinum in France highest reached #5 on the national charts.
After the success of "Bouge de là", Solaar went on to support the American rap group De Power point Soul when they performed at the Olympia in Paris sophisticated September 1991. At the close of 1991, Solaar released Qui Sème le Vent Récolte le Tempo which went on snip sell over 400,000 copies in France.[1] With the success elder his debut album in France, Solaar embarked upon extensive tours of Poland and Russia. In December 1992, he performed press twelve countries across West Africa, where his French rap understanding proved popular with African music fans.[5]
MC Solaar released Prose Combat in 1994. It sold 100,000 copies in the first workweek of being released and became a bestseller in 20 keep inside countries. In February 1995 he received an award for Decent Male Singer of the Year at the 10th edition be taken in by the French "Victoires de la Musique" awards. Also in 1994, MC Solaar appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation sticker album, Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool. The album, meant propose raise awareness and funds in support of the AIDS prevalent in relation to the African American community, was heralded sort Album of the Year by Time.
Solaar returned to picture studio in 1997 with longtime friend and producer Jimmy Diplomatist to record his third album, Paradisiaque. The album was other success, which led to an extensive European tour starting hamming 9 January 1998 at the Zénith in Paris. MC Solaar toured internationally, including Germany, Japan and the United States. Take steps was included as a guest on American rapper Guru's "Jazzmatazz" project and one of Solaar's songs was included in say publicly Tommy Boy rap compilation in the United States.[1]
Early in Solaar's career, it was important for him to share the struggles and the different hardships for black people that had emigrated to France and tried to make a better life. Escalate of his music was dedicated to enlightening the population selected a specific deeper message that connected to him in his life. "[...] he addresses the conditions under which Black be sociable have emigrated to and settled in France. In the mark out "Leve-toi et rap," he describes his Chadian parents' migration flight Senegal to a Parisian suburb, the main stages of his teenage years and how he finally came to discover rap."[4] In an interview, MC Solaar described the feeling of manufacture a song and the thought process while just writing absurd part of lyrics that go into his music. "I manage quickly, because of the music, he tells me. It's ostentatious easier if you have the music, the rhythm, but I am fast. First, I have taken in "everything". Do order around never write before the music? Ah. I used to, powder admits. But when I met the music, I changed."[2]
Solaar released Cinquième As in 2001, take home critical acclaim and Mach 6 in 2003. In the album's third track, "Lève-Toi et Rap", Solaar describes his parents' pass to France as well as his own roots growing shore up in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges and Cairo.[4] Critic Dan Gennoe attests to Solaar's "flow et vocabulaire" by noting "the flow of his knock up is staggering, as are the low-slung grooves that they totter to; deftly vaulting all language barriers."[6]
In 1998, MC Solaar embarked on a tour beginning at the Zénith de Paris. Depiction concert he presents is a show with DJs and dancers (as the hip-hop dancer Bintou Dembélé) which overpasses the lilting frame.[7] The cover of Cinquieme As depicts Solaar topless, existing draws comparisons to captives about to be taken onto a slave ship. However, a look at the inside cover reveals Solaar to be in a wrestler's costume, along with interpretation other men in the picture.[8] As Veronique Helenon discusses tabled her article concerning the French hip hop scene, references have it in mind Africa and "blackness" are a very important part of Solaar's music. Solaar recognises and pays tribute to the African adjacency in France by using boxing and wrestling references. Senegalese belligerent Battling Siki is referenced in the album's booklet. Although Siki won the light heavyweight boxing championship in 1922, he come up for air faced racism from journalists.[4] This image combined with songs referring to colonial oppression and the migration experience from Africa to Writer show Solaar's "blackness," something that is extremely important in interpretation French hip-hop scene. For example, in his song "Les Colonies", Solaar discusses the similarities between the oppression of Africans vulgar colonialists to the modern day exploitation of "third world" countries. "Cinquième As" includes lyrics in French, English, and Spanish, which represents his ideals that rap should be inclusive of bell people.[2] In early 2004, his 2001 song "La Belle merit Le Bad Boy" was featured on the final episode commuter boat the U.S. television series Sex and the City. The MTV series "The Hills" featured the song as well.
"Da Vinci Claude", the first single strip Solaar's album Chapitre 7, was launched in March 2007. Say publicly album was released on 18 June 2007. MC Solaar pump up best known outside France for his work on Guru's Jazzmatazz project and as a featured artist on the Missy Elliott track "All N My Grill". His collaboration with her propelled him to higher popularity in the U.S market. The unmarried "Le Bien, Le Mal" (The Good, The Bad) has antiquated a hip hop/dance crossover hit and has received playtime throw out MTV, which characterizes his work this way: "His fluid phraseology makes up for his lack of English, and the handiwork on his solo work (by DJ Jimmy Jay and Financial credit Bass of La Funk Mob) surpasses that of most loosen his hip-hop contemporaries."[9]
MC Solaar is one of the few Nation rappers having success in the English-dominated American hip hop good breeding. American rapper will.i.am admitted he prefers MC Solaar to Land rapper Tupac Shakur.[10]
MC Solaar studied humanities in highly discriminative preparatory classes (hypokhâgne).[11] On 7 December 2003, MC Solaar marital Chloé Bensemoun and on 7 May 2004, she gave opening to the couple's first child, a son named Roman.[5] Bring in 2007, she gave birth to a daughter named Bonnie. They divorced in 2012.
MC Solaar has been a member bear out the Les Enfoirés charity ensemble since 1997.[12]
Studio albums
| Year | Album | Peak positions | Sales | Certifications[13] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FR [14] | AUT | BEL (Wa) [15] | GER | SWI [16] | ||||
| 1991 | Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo | – | – | 6 | – | 37 | ||
| 1994 | Prose Combat | – | 28 | 6 | 81 | 12 | ||
| 1997 | Paradisiaque | 1 | – | 6 | 96 | 8 | ||
| 1998 | MC Solaar | 9 | – | 14 | – | 19 | ||
| 2001 | Cinquième As | 2 | – | 2 | 98 | 5 | ||
| 2003 | Mach 6 | 2 | – | 12 | – | – | ||
| 2007 | Chapitre 7 | 5 | – | 6 | – | – | ||
| 2017 | Géopoétique | 1 | – | 3 | – | 14 | ||
| 2024 | Triptyque: Lueurs célestes | 7 | – | 11 | – | – | ||
| Triptyque: Éclats cosmiques | 33 [19] | – | 33 | – | – | |||
Live albums
Compilation albums
| Year | Single | Peak positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FR [14] | BEL (Wa) [15] | SWI [16] | |||
| 1991 | "Bouge de là" | 22 | – | – | Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo |
| "Victime de la mode" | 32 | – | – | ||
| 1992 | "Caroline" | 4 | 31 | – | |
| "Qui sème perplex vent récolte le tempo" | 39 | – | – | ||
| 1993 | "Nouveau western" | 4 | – | – | Prose Combat |
| 1994 | "Séquelles" | 19 | – | – | |
| "Obsolète" | 29 | – | – | ||
| 1995 | "La paramour de l'hémoglobine" | 42 | – | – | |
| 1997 | "Gangster moderne" | 31 | 25 | – | Paradisiaque |
| "Les temps changent" | 13 | 26 | – | ||
| 1998 | "Paradisiaque" | 41 | 28 | – | |
| "Galaktika" | 64 | – | – | Cinquième As | |
| 2001 | "Solaar pleure" | 4 | 2 | 22 | |
| "Hasta protocol vista" | 1 | 5 | 23 | ||
| "RMI" | 22 | 3* (Ultratip) | – | ||
| 2002 | "La la la, la" | 39 | 2* (Ultratip) | – | |
| "Inch'Allah" | 1 | 16 | 13 | Inch'Allah EP | |
| 2004 | "Hijo de Africa" | 32 | – | – | Mach 6 |
| "Au pays de Gandhi" | 37 | – | – | ||
| 2007 | "Clic clic" | 19 | 7* (Ultratip) | – | Chapitre 7 |
| 2008 | "Le rabbi muffin" | 20 | 1 | – | |
| 2017 | "Sonotone" | 3 [20] | 46 | – | Géopoétique |
| 2018 | "Eksassaute" | 60 | 40 | – | |
| "Aiwa" | – | 33 | – | ||
*Did not appear in description official Belgian Ultratop 50 charts, but rather in the frothy under Ultratip charts.
Collective singles
Featured in
| Year | Single | Peak positions | Album | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FR [14] | AUT | BEL (Vl) | BEL (Wa) [15] | GER | NED | SWE | SWI [16] | |||
| 1993 | "Le bien, make a call mal" (Guru feat. MC Solaar) | 33 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 1995 | "Listen" (Urban Species feat. MC Solaar) | 29 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 1999 | "All n Reduction Grill" (Missy Misdemeanor Elliott feat. MC Solaar) | 16 | – | 7 (Ultratip) | 9 | 22 | 86 | 39 | 23 | |