• Arts & Entertainment
• Issue 2

Hip-hop's message is often as misunderstood as its lyrics are indecipherable. Those who aren't familiar with it see an image but may not understand the story behind the image.

The immortal American underground duo Dead Prez once rhymed: "Hip-hop means saying what I want, never bite my tongue. Hip-hop means teaching the young." Their message, and like those who came before them, has been passed on.

Parisian hip-hop artists Diro and Nanou are bouncing words back and forth in an empty car park in North London. "Represent. Colour. Colonial. Race. Discriminate."

A couple of boys from Brixton join in. "Ancestors in chains. Choked. White rule." Their lyrics are followed by a string of wry observations ending in a public service announcement. "Educate, don't agitate."

The look is bad boy in maximum overdrive, the message is provocative. The attitude can be positive, negative or cynical, but the content is innately political and social. Diro and Nanou flow with a brutal honesty but end their rhymes with face-filling grins.

A third person stops and asks if this is a freestyle battle. The boys are amused.

"No, this is a show of solidarity," said Brixton based rapper Jaja who
defines himself as "anti-everything and a Muslim to make it worse."

The Brixton outfit were at City University in London with Diro and Nanou on EC1 FM's radio show to compare styles and beats. Journalism students making a documentary about the two crews arranged the meeting.

Jaja said: "We feel no difference, they are from the Paris ghettos and we're Brixton, we speak English they speak French but listen to our words and you will feel we speak the same language - it's like meeting brothers."

Diro and Nanou nod in agreement. "We knew it would be like this, our issues go beyond our language, we have issues they have issues, the ideas translate," Nanou said..

The November race riots in Paris are not about any one issue to them. It was not a Muslim uprising or a race riot, labels they said the media inappropriately describe the situation. To Diro and Nanou it was about poverty-stricken, voiceless youths expressing their frustration.

Vincent is from another Parisian hip-hop group, and goes by the name 'Pizza.' "I am white and my brothers don't feel my colour, we rap about our government's policy of "diviser pour mieux reigner" (divide to rule), they pit the suburbs against the urban, the rich versus the poor. To us it isn't about black or white, it is about who has the power."

Nanou turns political and speaks of his role as an artist. "It is important for us to know our enemy and it is the French government, they keep us ignorant and without enough education and they impose this situation. There is no opportunity. I started rapping to show an ordinary boy from the suburbs can be heard, it is not just politicians who control the dialogue," he said.

Jaja and his crew break into a rap before passing it to the Parisians. Diro, who speaks some English, picks up the rap 'baton' and continues.

The smooth exchange is interrupted with laughter when a City University tutor has to step in and translate for the two groups.

Dead pan the academic clarifies the meaning of some Cockney street slang and the two groups return to their session.

They entered the recording suite at EC1 FM 101.4 ready to throw out their words, and left feeling exhilarated over the cultural exchange. Words like "fantastic" and "awesome" replaced "oppression" and "rage."

Sometimes hip-hop's message is bigger than the music, bigger than the image. Sometimes it's about solidarity.

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