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IAM
Akhenaton performing live from Montreal, Canada
Background information
Origin	Marseille, France
Genres	French hip hop
Years active	1989–present
Labels	Delabel Hostile Records Def Jam Recordings France
Members	Philippe Fragione (Akhenaton) Geoffroy Mussard (Shurik'n Chang-Ti) Éric Mazel (Khéops) Pascal Perez (Imhotep) François Mendy (Kephren)
Past members	Abdelmalek Sultan (Freeman)
Website	iam.tm.fr

IAM (pronounced "I am") is a French hip hop band from Marseille. Formed in 1989, it comprises Akhenaton (AKH; Philippe Fragione), Shurik'n (Geoffroy Mussard), Khéops (Éric Mazel), Imhotep (Pascal Perez) and Kephren (François Mendy). IAM has several meanings, including Invasion Arrivée de Mars ("Invasion from Mars"; Mars is frequently used as a metaphor for Marseille in IAM songs). Another meaning is Imperial Asian Man, while AKH often refers to L'homme Impérial Asiatique.

Themes

One of IAM's central themes in its songs is Africa. The group, which is one of the pioneer French rap groups, draws heavily in their music on allusions to Africa and particularly ancient Egypt. Their 1991 song "Les tam-tam de l'Afrique" was one of the first French rap hits to deal expressly with the issue of slavery. Using a sample of a Stevie Wonder song, "Les tam-tam de l'Afrique" focuses on the "abduction of its inhabitants, the Middle Passage, and the plantation system in the Americas".

IAM promotes an ideology that is based upon images associated with ancient Egypt, primarily upon the mythical allusions to pharaohs. By 1989 the group developed a unique rap style, mixing French beats and lyrics with Middle Eastern and Egyptian influences. Their stage names are of Egyptian origin; one of the group members, Eric Mazel, goes by the name Kheops, an allusion to the Egyptian pharaoh who built pyramids. This connection with ancient Egypt allows IAM "to assert connections to the contemporary Arab world in an indirect way."

Indeed, this "pharaoism", as French rap music specialist Andre Previous calls it, represents an attempt to negotiate and maintain a cultural identity in the context of a social scene rife with racist and discriminatory ideologies. Because many Muslims don't feel at home in white French society, references to Arabic origins and Islamic fundamentalism are part of a highly socially contested discourse on identity politics in French music. Thus, by employing 'pharaoism' to hide these references to and elicitations of the Arab world, IAM successfully articulates its connections with the "Franco-Maghrebi" cause and establishes an important social space for itself. The pharaoist aspects of IAM's rap help the group stay in touch with its origins where some non-white French people have assimilated unquestioningly into the surrounding French culture. Therefore, the group's rap is both politically charged and defiant, as it attempts to subvert notions of racial superiority by " multiracial alliance as an alternative to the 'old' politics." Most importantly, rap provides IAM with a place to address social issues and speak out against racial intolerance where the group can actually be heard. In fact, the first single release from their second album, "Je danse le Mia", "went on to prove an enormous hit on the French mainstream", according to French radio station RFI Musique. In this way, the use of 'pharaoism' as a mystical and coded strategy for the injection of Arabic and Egyptian lyrics, ideas, and sentiments into the music is what makes it commercially viable. Otherwise, if the music were any more outright in its references to Arabic origins, white French conservatives might identify it with Islamic Fundamentalism's grips over North African diasporatic communities living in France and try to censor it and impede the cause it stands for.

"'Les tams-tams de l'Afrique' was one of the first hits of French rap and dealt expressly with slavery. Using a sample of 'Pastime Paradise' by Stevie Wonder, this track focused on the plunder of Africa, the abduction of its inhabitants, the Middle Passage, and the plantation system in the Americas".

Collaborations

IAM have a long history of collaborations with the American hip hop group, the Wu-Tang Clan. IAM have sampled an Inspectah Deck lyric from the Wu-Tang Clan song "C.R.E.A.M", which states "Life as a shorty shouldn't be so rough" in their 1998 single, "Petit frère". Additionally, they featured a number of Wu-Tang affiliated artists on their 1997 single "La saga" and later members Method Man and Redman on their 2004 single "Noble Art" the video was directed by New York-based artist "Brad Digital". They were also featured in the song of RZA "Seul face à lui". These hip hop groups have a number of similarities, probably due to the fact that IAM member Akhenaton has listed Wu-Tang as one of his five favorite hip hop artists of all time. One notable example is that both groups have connections to Islam. The Wu-Tang Clan are known members of the Five-Percent Nation and often include Islamic references in their music. On the previously mentioned IAM collaboration, "La saga," rapper Prodigal Sunn states that "IAM, sunz of man from the royal fam, never ate ham, never gave a damn", referencing the dietary restrictions that Muslims have to follow. Similarly, French rappers IAM have used their music to display an alternative Muslim identity . IAM also collaborated with US rapper Lucas on the song "Spin the Globe" with rappers from 5 different countries spitting in 5 different languages showcasing the universal appeal and voice of hip hop.

Discography

Albums

Mixtapes

• 1989: IAM Concept
• 2007: Official Mixtape
• 2012: Assassins Scribes
• 2013: Assassins Scribes 2

Live albums

DVD Live

• 2007: Live au Dôme de Marseille (DVD)

Compilation albums

Singles

Other releases

• 1997: "La saga" (featuring Timbo King, Dreddy Krueger and Prodigal Sunn)
• 2004: "Second souffle"
• 2007: "Une autre brique dans le mur"
• 2007: "Ca vient de la rue"
• 2007: "Offishall
• 2008: "Coupe Le Cake"

Discography (solo projects)

Soundtracks

References

1. ^ Helenon, Veronique. "Africa on Their Mind: Rap, Blackness, and Citizenship in France". In The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture, ed. by Dipannita Basu and Sidney J. Lemelle, 151-66. London; Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press
2. Prevos, Andre J. M. "Postcolonial Popular Music in France: Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture in the 1980s and 1990s." In Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA, 39-56. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2001.
3. RFI Musique - - Biography – IAM Archived 17 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine
4. Swedenburg, Ted. "Islamic Hip-hop vs. Islamophobia." In Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA, 57-85. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2001.
5. Swedenburg, Ted. "Islamic Hip-hop vs. Islamophobia." In Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA, 69. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2001.
6. ^ Gross, Joan, David McMurray, and Ted Swedenburg. "Arab Noise and Ramadan Nights: Rai, Rap, and Franco-Maghrebi Identities." Diaspora 3:1 (1994): 3-39. (Reprinted in The Anthropology of Globalization: A Reader, ed. by Jonathan Xavier and Renato Rosaldo, 1)
7. "IAM Archived 2008-03-17 at the Wayback Machine." RFI Musique. April 2007. RFI Musique. 20 March 2008 .
8. Prevos, Andre J. M. "Islamic Hip-Hop versus Islamaphobia" In Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA, 57-85. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2001.
9. Abdel-Alim, Hesham Samy (7 July 2005). "Hip hop Islam". Al-Ahram Weekly. Archived from the original on 17 March 2008. Retrieved 19 March 2008.
10. "lescharts.com – Discographie IAM". lescharts.com (in French). Archived from the original on 5 November 2018. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
11. "Discografie IAM". ultratop.be (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 20 September 2011. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
12. "Discographie IAM". ultratop.be (in French). Retrieved 2 January 2021.
13. "IAM – hitparade.ch". hitparade.ch. Archived from the original on 24 December 2020. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
14. ^ "Les certifications". Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (in French). Retrieved 2 January 2021.
15. ^ "The Official Swiss Charts and Music Community". www.swisscharts.com. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
16. Min, 9 Décembre 2019 | 12 H. 12 (9 December 2019). "Top albums : Renaud entre directement N°1 des ventes !". aficia (in French). Archived from the original on 13 December 2019. Retrieved 13 December 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
17. ^ "IAM discography". lescharts.com. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
18. ^ "IAM discography". ultratop.be/fr. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
19. ^ "IAM discography". hitparade.ch. Archived from the original on 16 May 2007. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
20. "Top Albums (Week 49, 2021)" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
21. "Le Top de la semaine : Top Singles Téléchargés – SNEP (Week 7, 2017)" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
22. "Le Top de la semaine : Top Singles Téléchargés – SNEP (Week 10, 2017)" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. Archived from the original on 9 April 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2017.

External links

• Official website
• IAM Concept

• French hip-hop groups
• Virgin Records artists
• Musical groups from Marseille
• Rappers from Bouches-du-Rhône
• 1989 establishments in France
• Musical groups established in 1989