Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo

I don't really speak french (anymore), but I heard of MC Solaar already. Album was okay even though I did not understand a thing :D

Probably would have enjoyed this more if I spoke French

Jazzy Native Tongues style beats for a feel good relaxed sound. His delivery is great, incredible pacing and a cadence that wraps language around itself as he shifts tempos, accelerating through a verse hitting a rapid fire couple of lines and stepping back for a more spacious playful flow.

Only thing remotely interesting about this was that it was in French. Otherwise it would have just been a terrible sanitized 90s rap album. 1.5/5

loved it - felt like i was in a french nightclub martini bar, doesn't quite touch 5 star for me but not far off

French rap!!! I went into the album with a very negative mindset based on an important component to good rap is being able to understand what is said!! The music is very good and very varied. Great beats but lyrics are important to me. I cant score this album easily without knowing whats being said!

Mmmm, ze French heep-hurp is extra sexy no?

The music is good but I can’t understand French so the lyrics are lost on me.

Interesting to listen to something so lyrically based, that's in a language I do not understand at all. That being said, this is hip-hop that is right up my alley. Late '80s to early '90s is my sweet-spot for rap. Hip hop in this era was focused on the MC delivery, with the production being more sample, bass, and drum heavy. I find modern production too distracting; overshadowing the MC with too many changes and too much instrumentation. Solaar has a great voice and shows off multiple types of flow throughout. It sounds a little dated now, but for the era it was released, I think this was probably pretty groundbreaking.

Not my bag maybe? I love flowing raps with a nice bounce. Something about the production felt kind of off? It is a good album just not a great one or one that I will ever crave?

J'ai étudié le français pendant quatre ans au lycée ; je dois avouer que je ne saisis pas grand-chose aux paroles, mais le groove est indéniable. Le flow de MC Solaar est d'une fluidité incroyable et s'intègre comme un instrument à part entière à la production jazz-rap de haut vol signée Jimmy Jay. L'album soutient la comparaison avec A Tribe Called Quest ou Digable Planets, porté par des titres phares comme "Caroline" et "Bouge De Là" qui rendent la barrière de la langue sans importance. Malgré une rupture de ton un peu déconcertante sur "Ragga Jam", c'est un disque magistralement conçu et imprégné d'une ambiance unique.

I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Lyrics, idk I can barely speak french. The flow and rhythm were on point though. Ragga Jam is a clear high point for me.

interesting album, a pity its in french

I'm not sure this one is fully for me. There were a few songs I was able to enjoy without fully knowing the lyrics but rap in a language you aren't fluent in is always difficult. I mean it's my fault for not being fluent in French. Again, some songs were likable without knowing the lyrics but generally it didn't wow me. Maybe one day I will read through the lyrics in English and appreciate it more.

I’m sure it helps that I speak french, so I can understand some of what is being said. And there are some good lyrics, that I need to go back and look at more closely. But even if I didn’t understand the words, the beats slap! And this was his first album?? THIS artist is a great new discovery for me! Will definitely be doing a deep dive and hope to see him live some day, I bet his shows are a party!
This was a fun way to start my day and get me up and moving

This had cool tracks and samples. I enjoyed it a lot. I don’t know if being able to understand him would have hurt or helped, because I don’t know what he was saying.

Hè, MC Solaar? Bij de 1001? Hoe is dat gebeurd? Hij is zeker niet slecht hoor. Maar wat maakt hem bijzonder? Er zal toch wel wat interessantere rap uit Frankrijk te plaatsen zijn? Het is wel leuk om weer eens te horen. En het is ook wel bovengemiddeld. Ik twijfel tussen een 3+ of een 3,5. Reggae Jam maakt het verschil. Wat een slecht nummer zeg. Het wordt een 3+.

I wrote a whole review about I couldn't possibly fairly rate this, as it wasn't meant to ever reach me sitting in the middle of the US twiddling my thumbs, but it unfortunately got deleted, and I couldn't possibly re-type it with nearly the same amount of gusto. So, I'll just say that while I can recognize this album may do something for others, I feel its merits that I can process do not rise high enough for me to seek out more information, as at its core it is relatively predictable conscious hip hop album from the early 90s, and those are, frankly, a dime a dozen. I will give it the benefit of the doubt and boost it a little because I was still vibing to the solid production, but I gathered very little from listening to this, and I'm unsure if you can really blame me. A genre that is 70% lyrical focus being listened to by an exclusively English-speaking person is bound to cause problems, and while I realize that is not the album's fault, it cannot be ignored.

2.64, excluding intro and interlude.

This blinsided me a bit, in a really good way. The thing I love about French hip-hop is that I can barely understand a word they're saying, which shifts the focus onto the beats and turns the voice into just another instrument. And this is absolutely the best place to start; accessible and interesting without ever being cheesy or trashy.