Suprême NTM
Encyclopedia
Suprême NTM is a French hip hop
group formed in 1989
in the Seine-Saint-Denis
département. The group comprises rappers
Joey Starr
(born Didier Morville) and Kool Shen
(born Bruno Lopès). Their six albums were released by Sony Music Entertainment
.
The group takes its name from the French slang "NTM", an abbreviation for "Nique Ta Mère" ("Nique" is derived from the shortening of the French word "forniquer" (fornicate)) meaning "Fuck Your Mother". NTM is known for their hostility towards the police
, violent lyrics, and legal battles with the French authorities. Their musical style is predominantly hardcore rap, although later albums include funk
, soul
and reggae
influences.
The group is outspokenly critical of racism
and class inequality in French society, and while their earlier music is violent, some of their later work, such as "Pose ton Gun" ("Put down your Gun"), is explicitly anti-violent.
In 1998, the group released its last album of original material under the NTM moniker, as both Joey Starr and Kool Shen started their own labels, promoting new bands and branching out in other fields such as the clothing industry (2High is Kool Shen's brand, Com-8 is Joey Starr's).
While officially the band still exists, and its well-known name was used in 2001 to promote a 'duel' album pitting the two label's artists against each other, Kool Shen was quoted in 2004 saying "on a fini avec NTM en 98" ("We were done with NTM in 1998").
The group is known for its gritty, dark and sometimes violent lyrics, as well as for the contrast between the two rappers' styles. While Joey Starr (also known as Jaguar Gorgonne and Double-R) has a relatively slow flow, aggressive lyrics and a deep, booming voice (which he sometimes uses to yell such as in "Pose ton Gun"), Kool Shen has a funkier flow as well as witty and rather melancholic lyrics.
is often used as a racist figure in their songs. Some political figures proclaim that there are too many immigrants in France as a 1991 survey indicated that 71% of the French population said that there were too many Arabs in France. Most French Hip Hop groups are represented by the youth, and this generation is the second generation of those immigrants and were born on French soil.
The 1993 release 1993… J'appuie sur la Gâchette ("1993… I'm Pulling the Trigger") contained a track with the same name, about suicide, which was censored on most French TV channels (despite not creating any scandal, unlike "La Police") and a track Police http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKcP85frOFc that featured violent criticism of the police. The police responded to this by taking NTM to court. The court decided in favor of NTM. However, many French radio stations decided to boycott the group's music.
A second encounter with the police occurred in 1995 when the group made further comments critical of the French police during a live concert that allegedly included advocating violence against the police. The group was again taken to court, and this time they were sentenced, initially to six months imprisonment, a sentence that was shortened to two months imprisonment and a 50'000 Franc fine on appeal.
Joey Starr was later convicted of and imprisoned for charges unrelated to his musical career: assaulting a flight attendant in November 1998, and then assaulting his ex-girlfriend in 1999, shortly after his release.
Starr tried creating a new "watered down" public image in 2002, releasing a solo single which was not received well by critics, as it didn't have the trademark "energy" of the past NTM releases. The same year, his public image suffered further when he was filmed brutalizing a pet monkey in a documentary.
In June 2009, Joeystarr was sentenced to six months of prison for assaulting three people and demolishing their car with an axe. He claims he was under the influence of drugs and admits he overreacted.
Already in their first big event in 1992 at the Zenith NTM came with a large number of dancers, back up singers, and slogans like "fuck the police" or lyrics like "Le monde de demain" which powerfully demanded change in modern society. Police surrounded the concert and several riots then ensued.
Throughout their career, two major live events have set France's hip hop history and are for many French hip hop fans the best concerts there ever have been in hip hop music overall: NTM Live au Bataclan
in 1996 and NTM Live au Zenith in 1998.
One of their most impressive songs played live was "Qu'est ce qu'on attend...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLzQeQ03LTo": "What are we wating for.. to set everything on fire" in which Joey Starr finishes the song with his lion-like voice by a now famous "Dorénavant la rue ne pardonne plus" meaning "henceforth the street no longer forgives." This song was accused among others by some politicians to have contributed in unleashing the social riots that France has known in October 2005
In January 2008, a newspaper (Les Inrockuptibles
) has announced the possible return of NTM on stage. Both singers have indeed said, that even if they have no intention of reforming (they haven't spoken for 8 years now), a live event is not out of the question. Many interviews done this last month caused huge buzz in France and many now think that the live event might be held at the Stade de france
(France's biggest stadium), where NTM was supposed to do a concert in 1999 but was canceled since the group already had been separated. That only made bigger buzz since the Stade de France is right in the middle of the notorious 93 district, NTM's territory. Since the rumours themselves about this possible return on stage are quite an event, one can only imagine the impact that NTM still has on crowds, even after 9 years without activity.
It was confirmed on the 12th of March 2008, that NTM would be back for 3 concerts at Bercy. Tickets went on sale on the 15th of March at 10 o'clock and sold in 30 minutes.
NTM collaborates with famed New York Hip-hop artist Nas
for a song called Affirmative Action. This is a cross continental, cross cultural attack of the racially stratified status quo. ( It is one of many trans-atlantic collaborations within the hip hop world. MC Solaar
, IAM
, Afro Jazz, Monsieur R
, Booba
, Assassin
, and other French rappers also collaborated with famous American rappers ). Nas espouses messages of the corrupt nature of governmental agencies saying, "Feds cost me 2 mil to get the system off me". This collaboration played an undeniable role in the elevation of NTM to the international stage, and in their ability to spread awareness of "The condition of the black minority in France today and the bankruptcy of the African continent [which is] by no means a reflection of the continents worth and potential". Both contexts/rappers espouse the organization of a Mafiaesque counter governmental organization meant to empower the lower classes of the US and France in this song. NTM collaborated with Lord Kossity from Martinique to create a track that mixed rap with dancehall. The song, titled "Ma Benz" appeared on NTM's 1998 self-tiled album. NTM's established success helped to boost Lord Kossity's popularity.
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
group formed in 1989
1989 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1989.-Events:*January 14 – Paul McCartney releases Снова в СССР exclusively in the USSR...
in the Seine-Saint-Denis
Seine-Saint-Denis
- Culture :A number of hip hop artists come from the Seine-Saint-Denis, including one of the first major hip-hop groups in France, NTM, as well as Lord Kossity, or more recent acts such as Tandem or Sefyu.- Miscellaneous topics :...
département. The group comprises rappers
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
Joey Starr
Joey Starr
Joeystarr is a French rapper of Martinican origin, from Saint-Denis. He co-founded the famous French rap group Suprême NTM in 1989 along with Kool Shen....
(born Didier Morville) and Kool Shen
Kool Shen
Bruno Lopes, alias Kool Shen is a French rapper, with Portuguese origins. He is also a break dancer and a graffiti artist. He is a co-founder of Suprême NTM and one of the major figures of French rap. He featured on Enhancer's album "Electrochoc" in the song "Hot"...
(born Bruno Lopès). Their six albums were released by Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
.
The group takes its name from the French slang "NTM", an abbreviation for "Nique Ta Mère" ("Nique" is derived from the shortening of the French word "forniquer" (fornicate)) meaning "Fuck Your Mother". NTM is known for their hostility towards the police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
, violent lyrics, and legal battles with the French authorities. Their musical style is predominantly hardcore rap, although later albums include funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
and reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
influences.
The group is outspokenly critical of racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and class inequality in French society, and while their earlier music is violent, some of their later work, such as "Pose ton Gun" ("Put down your Gun"), is explicitly anti-violent.
In 1998, the group released its last album of original material under the NTM moniker, as both Joey Starr and Kool Shen started their own labels, promoting new bands and branching out in other fields such as the clothing industry (2High is Kool Shen's brand, Com-8 is Joey Starr's).
While officially the band still exists, and its well-known name was used in 2001 to promote a 'duel' album pitting the two label's artists against each other, Kool Shen was quoted in 2004 saying "on a fini avec NTM en 98" ("We were done with NTM in 1998").
The group is known for its gritty, dark and sometimes violent lyrics, as well as for the contrast between the two rappers' styles. While Joey Starr (also known as Jaguar Gorgonne and Double-R) has a relatively slow flow, aggressive lyrics and a deep, booming voice (which he sometimes uses to yell such as in "Pose ton Gun"), Kool Shen has a funkier flow as well as witty and rather melancholic lyrics.
Conflicts with authority
Everything started in summer 1983 where Joey Starr and Kool Shen were watching American hip hop dancers break it down in Paris. Joey Starr and Kool Shen started learning how to dance and defined their own style, smurf for Joey Starr and break dancing for Kool Shen. They then started painting graffiti, and were part of a graffiti writer group that was composed of DRC, TCG, 93 MCs and Joey and Kool Shen. After this period Joey and Kool got into the rapping industry where they were publicly heard on the radio for the first time in 1989 on radio Nova. Understanding the background of this group facilitates understanding the message behind its harsh lyrics. NTM is considered to be a hardcore rap group; the themes in their songs are mainly about social inequality and racism where Jean-Marie Le PenJean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
is often used as a racist figure in their songs. Some political figures proclaim that there are too many immigrants in France as a 1991 survey indicated that 71% of the French population said that there were too many Arabs in France. Most French Hip Hop groups are represented by the youth, and this generation is the second generation of those immigrants and were born on French soil.
The 1993 release 1993… J'appuie sur la Gâchette ("1993… I'm Pulling the Trigger") contained a track with the same name, about suicide, which was censored on most French TV channels (despite not creating any scandal, unlike "La Police") and a track Police http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKcP85frOFc that featured violent criticism of the police. The police responded to this by taking NTM to court. The court decided in favor of NTM. However, many French radio stations decided to boycott the group's music.
A second encounter with the police occurred in 1995 when the group made further comments critical of the French police during a live concert that allegedly included advocating violence against the police. The group was again taken to court, and this time they were sentenced, initially to six months imprisonment, a sentence that was shortened to two months imprisonment and a 50'000 Franc fine on appeal.
Joey Starr was later convicted of and imprisoned for charges unrelated to his musical career: assaulting a flight attendant in November 1998, and then assaulting his ex-girlfriend in 1999, shortly after his release.
Starr tried creating a new "watered down" public image in 2002, releasing a solo single which was not received well by critics, as it didn't have the trademark "energy" of the past NTM releases. The same year, his public image suffered further when he was filmed brutalizing a pet monkey in a documentary.
In June 2009, Joeystarr was sentenced to six months of prison for assaulting three people and demolishing their car with an axe. He claims he was under the influence of drugs and admits he overreacted.
NTM Live
NTM began to be known not only for their hard but conscious lyrics but for their stage presence during live events in the 90s.Already in their first big event in 1992 at the Zenith NTM came with a large number of dancers, back up singers, and slogans like "fuck the police" or lyrics like "Le monde de demain" which powerfully demanded change in modern society. Police surrounded the concert and several riots then ensued.
Throughout their career, two major live events have set France's hip hop history and are for many French hip hop fans the best concerts there ever have been in hip hop music overall: NTM Live au Bataclan
Bataclan (theatre)
The Bataclan is a "salle de spectacle" at 50 boulevard Voltaire in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. It was built in 1864 by the architect Charles Duval. Its name refers to Ba-Ta-Clan, an operetta by Offenbach...
in 1996 and NTM Live au Zenith in 1998.
One of their most impressive songs played live was "Qu'est ce qu'on attend...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLzQeQ03LTo": "What are we wating for.. to set everything on fire" in which Joey Starr finishes the song with his lion-like voice by a now famous "Dorénavant la rue ne pardonne plus" meaning "henceforth the street no longer forgives." This song was accused among others by some politicians to have contributed in unleashing the social riots that France has known in October 2005
In January 2008, a newspaper (Les Inrockuptibles
Les Inrockuptibles
Les Inrockuptibles is a French cultural magazine. Started as a monthly magazine in 1986, it became weekly in 1995. The name is a play on "Les Incorruptibles", the French title of the American television series The Untouchables...
) has announced the possible return of NTM on stage. Both singers have indeed said, that even if they have no intention of reforming (they haven't spoken for 8 years now), a live event is not out of the question. Many interviews done this last month caused huge buzz in France and many now think that the live event might be held at the Stade de france
Stade de France
The Stade de France is the national stadium of France, situated just north of Paris in the commune of Saint-Denis. It has an all-seater capacity of 80,000, making it the fifth largest stadium in Europe, and is used by both the France national football team and French rugby union team for...
(France's biggest stadium), where NTM was supposed to do a concert in 1999 but was canceled since the group already had been separated. That only made bigger buzz since the Stade de France is right in the middle of the notorious 93 district, NTM's territory. Since the rumours themselves about this possible return on stage are quite an event, one can only imagine the impact that NTM still has on crowds, even after 9 years without activity.
It was confirmed on the 12th of March 2008, that NTM would be back for 3 concerts at Bercy. Tickets went on sale on the 15th of March at 10 o'clock and sold in 30 minutes.
Collaborations
NTM has collaborated with a number of International artists.NTM collaborates with famed New York Hip-hop artist Nas
Nas
Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, who performs under the name Nas , formerly Nasty Nas, is an American rapper and actor. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in hip hop and one of the most skilled and influential rappers of all-time...
for a song called Affirmative Action. This is a cross continental, cross cultural attack of the racially stratified status quo. ( It is one of many trans-atlantic collaborations within the hip hop world. MC Solaar
MC Solaar
MC Solaar is a francophone hip hop and rap artist. He is one of the most internationally popular and influential French rappers....
, IAM
IAM
- Concepts :* Identity and Access Management, a concept that combines business processes, policies and technologies.* Innovation Access Method, a high-performance indexed access-method for IBM's z/OS and OS/390 operating systems that provides a transparent alternative to IBM's VSAM* Indo-Aryan...
, Afro Jazz, Monsieur R
Monsieur R
Monsieur R, , is a French rap artist whose work focuses on the political rap genre. His music features hard driven rhythms with thumping base lines, known as "old school," which conveys the hard reality of his environment...
, Booba
Booba
Elie Yaffa better known under his stage name Booba, is a French rapper from Paris. He is half Senegalese from his father's side and half French of Moroccan origin from his mother's side...
, Assassin
Assassin (rap crew)
Assassin is a French hardcore rap group formed in the 18th Arrondissement of Paris. The group was formed in 1985 by Rockin' Squat and Solo. Later, Doctor L joined them, as well as DJ Clyde...
, and other French rappers also collaborated with famous American rappers ). Nas espouses messages of the corrupt nature of governmental agencies saying, "Feds cost me 2 mil to get the system off me". This collaboration played an undeniable role in the elevation of NTM to the international stage, and in their ability to spread awareness of "The condition of the black minority in France today and the bankruptcy of the African continent [which is] by no means a reflection of the continents worth and potential". Both contexts/rappers espouse the organization of a Mafiaesque counter governmental organization meant to empower the lower classes of the US and France in this song. NTM collaborated with Lord Kossity from Martinique to create a track that mixed rap with dancehall. The song, titled "Ma Benz" appeared on NTM's 1998 self-tiled album. NTM's established success helped to boost Lord Kossity's popularity.
Discography
- 1991 : Authentik
- 1993 : 1993… J'Appuie Sur La Gâchette
- 1995 : Paris Sous Les BombesParis sous les bombesParis Sous Les Bombes is the third album by French hip hop group Suprême NTM.- Tracklisting:#"Intro"#*Contains samples from "American Tango" by Weather Report#"Plus jamais ça" – 4:46#"Tout n'est pas si facile" – 4:50...
- 1998 : Suprême NTMSuprême NTM (album)Suprême NTM is the fourth album of the French hip hop group Suprême NTM.-Track listing:# Intro - 1:13# Back dans les bacs - 3:17...
- 2000 : Live (1991–1998)
- 2001 : NTM Le Clash - BOSS Vs IV My People
- 2007 : Supreme NTM - Best Of 2007
- 2009 : On est encore là - Live Bercy 2008