#french-rap

#french-rap

David Bellion spent over a decade in top-flight football, playing for clubs like Manchester United and Sunderland, before becoming Red Star FC's creative director, focusing on brand development and cultural connections.

"We're constantly striving to strike a balance between work that respects academic rules of composition, established visual codes and good readability, with something more spontaneous, adventurous, playful, even naive."

For many in Marseille, the far right in France's second city will be for ever associated with the killing of Ibrahim Ali. In 1995, the teenager was leaving a rap band rehearsal with friends when they crossed paths with three National Front militants who were putting up posters in support of the Front's founder and then leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen. Ibrahim was shot in the back as he ran to catch his bus.

The first round of local elections happens next Sunday (March 15th), with 34,000 communes, from tiny villages up to the major cities, heading out to elect the local mayors who play a huge part in shaping the life and infrastructure of each area.

If you've walked around any of France's cosmopolitan cities in recent years, you're sure to have come across some stunning murals. Painted onto the side of buildings, in hidden corners, and just about anywhere an artist can paint, street art is booming. We're not talking old-school graffiti here, hastily sprayed names on walls, and anti-social stuff like that. Today's street art is commissioned by city or town councils and created by prominent street artists from around the globe says Suzanne Pearson.

The festival of Pailhasses is one of France's most ancient carnival traditions. Celebrating the end of a longstanding rivalry with a neighbouring village, it has for more than 700 years allowed villagers to release frustrations before Lent. Its rituals are about strength, chasing and some form of attack. It is also notoriously secretive.

Need a French poem to impress your date or S.O.? Love is in the air and here at Frenchly, we've got you covered. The French language has long been considered the language of romance, and French poetry is a beautiful way to say "je t'aime" to your love. Here are seven French love poems that will sweep anyone off their feet. We've included the original French version of each poem, along with their English translation.

Photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson (19082004) travelled all over the world and extensively throughout Europe. After producing numerous series of photographs for magazines in Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, Switzerland and France, Cartier-Bresson wanted to bring them together in a book and in 1955, he published Les Europeens (The Europeans). This book of photographs aims to show what makes each of the peoples of this geographical area unique while highlighting their similarities. This exhibition brings together some of the most important photographs from the book.

You can learn French in many ways - for instance from apps, cds, watching films and listening to the radio. But nothing fast‑tracks your learning like French immersion programs in France - especially when they're in the most amazing locations, with superb chateau accommodation and include the best wine and gastronomy and private tours... In an immersive programme, French becomes your language - not just for an hour a week, or even an hour a day if you're very disciplined, but of everyday life.

Rap music has long been framed as a genre of excess: too loud, too violent, too vulgar. From its beginnings, it has been associated with anger, confrontation, and a form of hypermasculinity that leaves little room for alternative expressions. In France especially, rap has often been perceived as the voice of male youth from working-class neighborhoods, carrying narratives of struggle, rivalry, and domination.

If you spend any time scrolling French TikTok, watching French YouTubers, or hanging out near a high school or university café in Paris, Marseille, or Lyon, you'll quickly notice that the French you learned in class isn't exactly what young people are speaking today. French Gen Z slang is a fast-evolving mix of , Arabic and Romani influences, texting shortcuts, and words born from rap and street culture.

I noticed the swelling of the double bass first, quickly followed by the fluttering of brushed cymbals. A saxophone pushing against the edges of a melody swiftly married the notes together, chords drifting haphazardly before reaching a slow, pulsing groove. The jazz quartet performed in front of a liquor cabinet lined with whisky bottles; low-hanging lights teetered overhead, throwing shapes on the monochromatic marble-tiled floor. Outside, a leafy veranda was filled with diners, the music drifting through flung-open doors and windows.

Belleville has always been a little bit rowdy, whether it meant to be or not. Long before it was folded into Paris in 1860, it existed as its own working-class wine village perched on a hill, slightly removed from the city both geographically and ideologically. In recent years, as Paris's 10th and 11th arrondissements have slid fully into hipster territory, and even the gritty Barbès neighborhood feels increasingly polished, Belleville has held onto its identity with surprising resolve.

The satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, known globally and tragically for being the target of an Islamist attack in 2015 published a caricature of me. And it was appallingly racist. A huge, toothy grin, an enormous mouth, the cartoon depicts me dancing on a stage before an audience of laughing white men, adorned with a banana belt on a largely exposed body. The headline: The Rokhaya Diallo Show: Mocking secularism around the world.