0315. MC Solaar
Qui Sème Le Vent Récolte Le Tempo

Dammit! I got to learn French, this is starting to get embarrassing.
This debut by Dakar-born French MC Solaar (not to be confused with the asshat Solar) and the title is a wordplay on the biblical "He who sows the wind will reap the tempest" into "He who sows the wind will reap the tempo".

The first single off this album, Bouge De Là, was the second ever hip hop track to become a hit in France and launched MC Solaar into the limelight, as well as earning him a platinum disc. It's not the best on the album though, as Qui Sème Le Vent Récolte Le Tempo and the funky L'Histoire De L'Art (among a couple of others) displays his flow better and also has better instrumentals.

As, previously mentioned, I can't understand a fraction of what he's saying, but I know he's studied languages and is an acclaimed lyricist (which makes my language-deficiency a whole lot more irritating) and from a flow nd delivery point of view he's a good example of the hip hop in the break between the eighties and nineties. If he'd been American I think he'd been as greatly renowned as the Native Tongue collective, but now I guess he'll just have to settle for having his lyrics studied at the universities.

Interesting fact is that he later got into a legal dispute with a media conglomerate about this and the two subsequent albums. A court-battle that led to the albums being banned from Vivendi-controlled radio cause they're sore losers.