Full to the Rim’k

The first time I ever got down with a French MC was back in late 1994: the still ill MC Solaar on Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool, “Un Ange en Danger.” Digging on the conscious, Rakim-smooth Solaar put me in the shoes of worldwide international hiphop fans who love American rappers to death without understanding a word of English; sometimes it’s all about the beats and the flow. (You lying anyway if you say you catch every word out the mouth of somebody like the Roots’ Black Thought.) I’d later catch MC Solaar at the Supper Club near Times Square, performing at a Giant Step night with Guru from Gang Starr. But though he’s got a concert coming up at Le Bataclan on Thursday, in support of his recent Chapitre 7, this isn’t about Solaar. Instead, let’s talk about Rim’k for a quick minute.

I mention Rim’k now because I mentioned Rim’k briefly in the last post. The Jive International label will be putting out Famille Nombreuse (or Numerous Family) in America next week, but the album – the Algerian MC’s second – dropped in Europe last week. As further proof that Atlanta/the dirty South is the aesthetic core of hiphop nowadays, the 29-year-old’s new record is full of crunk-influenced production. I could say who produced it, but you wouldn’t know them anyway either; one thing at a time.

Born Abdelkrim Brahmi, Rim’k (pronounced Rim-Kah) splintered off from one of France’s greatest hiphop groups, 113. Named after the building number in the Vitry-sur-Seine projects they grew up in together as teenagers, 113 also includes Mokobé and AP, whose heritage stem from Mali and Guadeloupe, respectively. Another group of hardcore French MCs – more of a loose-knit collective, really – called the Mafia K’1 Fry also counts Rim’k as a member, but they’re already at least 16 “members” strong. Check out the video to 113’s bhangra- flavored biggest hit below, “Tonton du Bled” (uncle from the land), and see what it’s like for Europeans to listen to Ghostface Killah with no idea of what’s he’s saying. (Yeah, like every single one of us does either.)