| 01 | | (Je N'Arrive Pas a) Danser | | | | | | | 02 | | Une Clarte Rarissme | | | | | | | 03 | | Champagne Sans Bulles | | | | | | | 04 | | (Je N'Arrive Pas a) Danser (instrumental) | | | | | | | 05 | | Une Clarte Rarissme (instrumental) | | | | | | | 06 | | Champagne Sans Bulles (instrumental) | | | | | |
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Remember hip hop in New York back in 1995? Puffy was at the height of his commercial dominance, mainstream rap had never seen so lacking in fresh ideas and there seemed no alternative. Then, within a year, Mos Def, Company Flow, the Arsonists, J-Live and many more exploded onto the scene, the New York Underground was born and attitudes were changed forever.
Fast forward to Paris in 2002. The situation might look familiar. Despite its commercial successes, French hip hop seems short on ideas and creativity, is dominated by two camps and apparently has nowhere left to go. Live shows have been stymied by the threat and fear of violence. Of vision, humour or integrity there seems very little sign. What better time, then, for the small Paris Underground to stand up and be counted? Artists like La Caution, James Delleck and, yes, TTC. While too many minds restrict themselves to rapping about how they "cut you like a knife", institutionalised censure or the effects of globalisation, Tido Berman, Teki Latex and Cuizinier have chosen the path of originality. Or, more precisely, they have not had to choose. The three MCs of TTC donÕt try to be original, they simple aspire to be honest. Or kind of honest, anyway.
"Tido has a funny haircut and likes spending his days re-inventing the French syntax, Cuizinier is all thugged out," explains the rubber-faced Teki, "and I'm that old funny dude obsessed with lesbianism!"
TTCÕs first, self-released single, "Game Over Ō99" came out, unsurprisingly, in 1999. When one of the groupÕs producers, Mr Flash, dropped off a copy with Will Ashon of Big Dada that summer he was blown away.
"My French isnÕt great, but the three voices contrasted so well and had so much character I instantly wanted to sign them. I was playing it to anyone who would listen, just laughing at how technically good they were. It was only later that I found out just how dirty the lyrics were. Then I liked it even more."
Since signing, the group have released two singles for the label. First came "Leguman" which dealt both with superhero vegetables and a detailed description of the Parisian Metro. Then there was "Elementaire," where the trio re-imagined hip hop, went on about talking space cakes and took the Michel out of wack French rappers. During this time, TTC have also made contacts all over the world, exploring the true internationalism of the underground scene with the result that they are well known from the USA to Japan and have even played a heap of shows in Finland.
Their live performances are also well on the way to becoming legendary being, as they are, an exact opposite of what one would expect from a traditional French rap group. They donÕt jump, they donÕt dance, but undulate with their eyes closed most of the time, usually half-cut. Almost insulting the public by spending more time talking about their lives than actually rapping, they develop a strange spectacle, full of surprises and disguises, somewhere between performance art, comedy and the Sex Pistols. Some people in Paris hate them for it. Those people are wrong.
"Ceci NÕest Pas Un Disque" ("This Is Not A Record") finally offers the group the opportunity to let their imagination run freely over twelve tracks. As Teki puts it, the album is "about three entire lifetimes spent receiving incredible, overly saturated and extreme amounts of information from various sources such as interactions with people, school, work, the media, modern pop culture, etc... our interpretation of that crazy amount of information and the way it affects us, how it reflects in our way of dealing with our own feelings, expressing our emotions and just basically expressing ourselves through music." This leads to results that sound like Abba on the Paris Underground anthem "Pollutions", Company FlowÕs off centre b-boy abstraction on "Subway", the noise of footsteps in the snow sampled on "Danser", Autechre"s electronic-rigour on "En Soulevent Le Couvercle", the twisted logic of David Lynch on "Reconstitution" and straight-up anti-cool-rich-kids satire on "Pauvres Riches.
With guests including Doseone and producers including DJ Vadim, "Ceci NÕEst Pas Un Disque" is funny, sick, serious, heartfelt, kitsch, abstract, bumping, internationalist and very, very French all at the same time, with enough ideas to shame those who think hip hop has said all it can say.
And if it seems like the band might be beginning to take themselves too seriously, then wait till you hear that "we consider things such as friendship, respect and education important."
Teki snorts another laugh. "Haha, not really."
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