Saint-Denis, cradle of rap and the French hip-hop movement

At first glance, it looked like an innocent high school fair. On a makeshift stage set up against a basketball backboard and the edge of a bleacher, a hesitant sound system attempted to echo the tumult of scratched rhythms. Here and there, banners covered with imposing colored graffiti that still smelled strongly of spray paint were hung. “Everything looked like it was held together with tape. There was something odd about it. We wondered what we were doing there,” recalled journalist Olivier Cachin, who arrived with his film crew at the Palais des Sports in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on October 26, 1990. At the time, Cachin hosted Rapline on M6, the only show of its kind on television, with the enthusiasm of a pioneer, and had come to cover La Nuit du Rap. Two groups were present, still largely unknown, but soon to be legendary: IAM from Marseille and NTM, a pure product of Saint-Denis, whose appearance in the final brought howls of joy from the several hundred young people packed into the concert hall. “It was miraculous, I’d never seen anything like it,” commented Cachin over the phone. “In 1990, rap on stage didn’t yet exist in France....