Saveur Bitume (1/10)

Asphaltgefühl : Rap und Politik (1/10)

Intro

Rap y política

Smak asfaltu: rap i polityka

Il sapore dell'asfalto: rap e politica (1/10)

Coming out of France’s suburban ghetto, the first French hip-hop artists take the country by storm in 1990. Names like Assassin, NTL and IAM were politically engaged and ready to shake things up.

program_content

Hip-Hop Culture

Concrete Feeling

<p>Coming out of France’s suburban ghetto, the first French hip-hop artists take the country by storm in 1990. Names like Assassin, NTL and IAM were politically engaged and ready to shake things up.</p>

Concrete Feeling (1/10): Rap and Politics

program_playNext

The mainly BAME neighbourhoods of Paris were places mainstream media didn't go and didn't talk about. So the local rapper's became the CNN of their communities. They rapped about unemployment, police violence, everyday racism and lack of a future. They wanted to be heard by the society that had pushed them to the fringes.

Concrete Feeling (2/10)

The mainly BAME neighbourhoods of Paris were places mainstream media didn't go and didn't talk about. So the local rapper's became the CNN of their communities

On Mission

Rap took off: no longer a genre on the fringes of acceptability or even on the fringes of what is considered music: it was everywhere. It was on TV, and in film, and it stormed the charts with major commercial successes. But that left many rappers with an uncomfortable choice: stay true to their underground roots or embrace the mainstream.

Concrete Feeling (3/10)

Many rappers with an uncomfortable choice: stay true to their underground roots or embrace the mainstream

Authenticity

The rapper is a social animal. He moves in groups and collectives, like Time Bomb or Beat 2 Boul. They're like famillies, only with a message and a vision. And maybe that family is necessary: during the height of racial tensions in 90s France, controversial immigration laws left many communities feeling under attack. .

Concrete Feeling (4/10)

The rapper is a social animal. He moves in groups and collectives, like Time Bomb or Beat 2 Boul

Each to Their Own Gang

Every generation of rapper in France tackles the diffcult and sometimes violent relationship between the police and urban French youth. And in the 90s, it became urgent after 17-year-old Makomé M'Bowolé was killed by a bullet to the head at point blank range during a police interrogation at a police station, triggering riots. 

Concrete Feeling (5/10)

17-year-old Makomé was killed during a police interrogation, triggering riots and a generation of rappers to address race and police

Interlude [Police]

Some rappers aren't content to work for somebody else. They intend to decide for themselves on their own terms rather than feel controlled by the record industry. They want to stay independent.

Concrete Feeling (6/10)

Some rappers aren't content to work for somebody else

Serious Business

In 1996, after a law was passed demanding that 40 percent of the music played on French radio be French, the radio station Skyrock became THE station to go to to listen to rap, and its influence grew to the point that it was Skyrock that could make or break music careers. It's been a love-hate relationship between the commercial radio and the artists who need to get them to play their tracks - whilst resisting the influence commercial appeal has on their work.

Concrete Feeling (7/10)

Skyrock became THE station to go to to listen to rap, and its influence grew to the point that it was Skyrock that could make or break music careers

We're the First

Rap has grown mainstream; and in doing so, has it lost its soul? And which rap has value, which one is the authentic rap? There's socially conscious rap, gangsta rap, protest rap and poetic rap. But isn't true rap about giving a voice to the voiceless, and so intrinsically an act of protest? 

Concrete Feeling (8/10)

Rap has grown mainstream; and in doing so, has it lost its soul?

Authenticity [Part II]

2005. In the aftermath of the biggest riots in France since May 68, the political class has to find the culprit. It's not the unemployment, not the failure of urban policies for the past 20 years...  the problem is rap, which is anti-France. But France is going to get rid of the scum, authorities promise.

Concrete Feeling (9/10)

2005. In the aftermath of the biggest riots in France since May 68, the political class points the finger not at lack of opportunity but on rap

Everything Burns

French rap may not have achieved the social changes it wanted, but it is now a firm favourite on the airwaves. This is a cultural revolution: rap is chanson francaise. 

Concrete Feeling (10/10)

French rap may not have achieved the social changes it wanted, but it is now a firm favourite on the airwaves

Outro

RC-017319

Yetundey is originally from Leipzig and mixes styles and influences. Layla Boe wants to make the German language smoother in her music.

Girlhood - Women in Rap (1/4)

Germany

Raphaël Stora, Parisian  and ex hip hop dancer, goes through fifteen years of personal film footage. He goes on a journey through dance and film to meet the latest Parisian talent.

Raphaël Stora, Parisian  and ex hip hop dancer, goes through fifteen years of personal film footage

Grounds (1/8)

In 2019, Les Indes galantes was performed at the Opera de la Bastille in Paris, hip hop style. This baroque opera, composed by Jean-Philippe Rameau, is an ode to colonial exoticism, and its reworking is the brainchild of Bintou Dembélé, the first black woman to choreograph a ballet at the Paris Opera.

Gymnastics

In 2019, Les Indes galantes was performed at the Opera de la Bastille in Paris, hip hop style

Operatic Hip Hop: Dance Decolonised

program_recommendations

Mohamed Ali was aware of the power of image. A genius boxer and king of communication, he surrounded himself with the best photographers of his time and attracted the interest of the press, shaping his own iconography. So how did Muhammad Ali win the fight to control his image?

Mohamed Ali wasn't just a genius boxer, but a king of communication

Mohamed Ali: The Legend of a Fighter

A simple hut on the Côte d‘Azur shows all of Le Corbusier’s architectural genius.

Le Corbusier and his Cabin

Conductors can gesticulate wildly when they conduct an orchestra. But have you ever wondered what exactly they are doing with their hands? And why do they use a baton?

Why Do Conductors Use Batons?

Ex-member of the Camorra, Davide Cerullo lives in La Scampia, a notoriously tough suburb of Naples. He fights the local culture of violence with the beauty of photography and poetry.

Davide Cerullo: The Just Man of Gomorra

Jan Vormann is an inventor, a sculptor and a dreamer. He wants us to bring colour into our lives by repairing our cities with Lego.

Fixing Our Cities with Lego

program_bonus

Bonuses and Extracts

program_external

Discover more

program_categoryMostViewed

Meet two of Poland's oldest hippies: Juliusz (92) and Krystof (77) have been living on the shores of Lake Solina, in almost total isolation and surrounded by nature and animals, for decades. But life in the middle of nowhere is increasingly hard on their aging bodies. 

Meet two of Poland's oldest hippies: Juliusz (92) and Krystof (77)

Re: An Unconventional Retirement

Behind his polite exterior lies a formidable leader with a ruthless character, ready to do anything to make China the world's leading power by the People’s Republic’s centenary in 2049. This well-documented portrait of the Chinese president gives an unprecedented insight into his politics and shows how Xi Jinping's personal journey has shaped his choices as he steers China towards world domination.

A portrait of the Chinese president giving an unprecedented insight into his politics and showing how Xi Jinping's personal journey has shaped his choices as he steers China towards world domination.

The New World of Xi Jinping

Faced with more frequent and violent natural disasters caused by climate change, animals and plants are adapting. Some species, such as sharks, which are able to sense the change in atmospheric pressure of a coming hurricane, move away from danger. Others learn to live with it, such as curlews, which use the hot ash from erupting volcanoes in Papua New Guinea to incubate their eggs. A surprising and inspiring documentary about nature's survivors.

How Animals and Plants Survive

Faced with more frequent and violent natural disasters caused by climate change, animals and plants are adapting. A surprising and inspiring documentary about nature's survivors.

Natural Disasters

To celebrate 50 years of French radio station FIP, Sting gives a special performance in the monumental surroundings of the Pantheon in Paris.

50 Years of FIP Radio

Sting at the Pantheon in Paris

Lowriding is a passion for cars where owners customise their vintage vehicles to look cool gliding along the Los Angeles boulevards. For long a male-only pursuit, more and more women are getting into it lowriding.

Geo Reportage

Lowriders of Los Angeles

Saudi Arabia is reputed to be one of the richest and most conservative nations on the planet. But how do its citizens live today?

Unknown Arabia

Saudi Arabia: The West

A region of Europe with a shared experience of communism and USSR dominance, Eastern Europe today is characterised by nations with diverse cultural and political identities.

Mapping the World

How many Eastern Europes?

Pippi Longstocking, the superhumanly strong redhead with pigtails and freckles, conquers the world of classical ballet. The Swedish dancer and choreographer Pär Isberg stages Astrid Lindgren’s favourite character from the Villa Villekulla for the Helsinki opera house. The ballet music is the work of Georg Riedel and Stefan Nilsson.

From the Helsinki Opera

The Swedish dancer and choreographer Pär Isberg stages Astrid Lindgren’s favourite character for the Helsinki opera house.

Pippi Longstocking

In recent years Oman has been opening up to western tourists. What awaits them is a land of mountains, deserts, fjords, and pristine beaches.

Fairytale Oman

Stuttgart Ballet performs ‘Onegin’, John Cranko’s acclaimed 1965 choreography of Alexander Pushkin’s novel. Classical ballet at its best in a version created for the cinema.

A Ballet by John Cranko

Stuttgart Ballet performs ‘Onegin’, John Cranko’s acclaimed 1965 choreography of Alexander Pushkin’s novel.

Onegin

Vadum Minsyuk and Yuri Andreyev fled the war in eastern Ukraine in 2014. In search of a new beginning, they decided to start a new life in the Chernobyl region, close to the exclusion zone from the 1986 nuclear disaster. The dangers of radiation are better than the rockets of war.

Vadum Minsyuk and Yuri Andreyev fled the war in eastern Ukraine to start a new life in the Chernobyl region,  The dangers of radiation are better than the rockets of war for them.

Re: New Beginning in Chernobyl

The Indian state of Sikkim has banned pesticides completely, allowing only organic farming. The results: healthy food and healthy soils.

ARTE Reportage

India: Sikkim - A Green New World

A special gala concert to celebrate five years of Hamburg’s fantastic new concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie, opened on January 11 2017. The NDR Elbphilharmonie orchestra performs works by Adams, Adès and Salonen with conductor Alan Gilbert and pianist Kiril Gerstein.

With Kirill Gerstein, Alan Gilbert and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra

A special gala concert to celebrate five years of Hamburg’s fantastic new concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie.

5 Years of the Elbphilharmonie

Iraq in 2022: Will the emerging nation succeed in resisting foreign influence and from Iran in particular? What does the future hold for the Kurdish autonomous region? And will the USA ever really leave?

Iraq in 2022: Will the emerging nation succeed in resisting influence from foreign powers, and from Iran in particular? 

Iraq - A Sovereign Country?

Present on the coast but also inland, dunes are shaped by the wind and are in perpetual movement. These extraordinary landscapes made of infinite grains of sand are ephemeral and inhospitable. Yet the environment they offer is astonishingly diverse.

Present on the coast but also inland, dunes are in perpetual movement, creating extraordinary ephemeral landscapes.

Dunes: Europe's Moving Landscapes

A journey through Middle-earth, or rather New Zealand. Peter Jackson used the natural beauty of his native land to great effect in his film adaptation of J.R.R Tolkien’s classic trilogy. A tour through locations for the Shire, the Misty Mountains and Mordor… 

Cult Film Locations

A journey through New Zealand used to great effect in the film adaptation of Tolkien’s classic.

Looking for the Lord of the Rings

It's big business: in summer, hundreds of kilos of mushrooms are illegally picked every day in Romanian forests. They are then transported to Italy by intermediaries where they are sold at astronomical prices. Romanian authorities do nothing as the forests are looted unsustainably for their grey gold.

It's big business: in summer, hundreds of kilos of mushrooms are illegally picked every day in Romanian forests

Re: Truffle Traffick in Romania

Carolyn Carlson and her company bid farewell to each other in a final creation. On the Chaillot theatre stage in Paris, the legendary choreographer and performer presents The Tree (Fragments of poetics on fire), an ode to nature and the elements.

Théâtre de Chaillot

The legendary American choreographer presents The Tree (Fragments of poetics on fire), an ode to nature and the elements.

Carolyn Carlson's The Tree

The United Arab Emirates includes the sci-fi like cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai with their breath taking towers and impressive beach resorts. It is also a land of expats with residents from over two hundred different nations.

The United Arab Emirates includes the sci-fi like cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. It is also a land of expats with residents from over two hundred different nations.

United Arab Emirates

Sting was an ecologically-conscious yogi hipster before it was even a thing. He's always been fighting for our right to enjoy a better future than the one we are making for ourselves. Perhaps a strange mission for someone with punk musical roots?

Concrete Feeling (1/10): Rap and Politics

Concrete Feeling

On Mission

Authenticity

Each to Their Own Gang

Interlude [Police]

Serious Business

We're the First

Authenticity [Part II]

IntroConcrete Feeling (1/10): Rap and Politics

Hip-Hop Culture

Germany

Intro

Grounds (1/8)

Operatic Hip Hop: Dance Decolonised

You may also like

On Mission

Interlude [Police]

We're the First

Mohamed Ali: The Legend of a Fighter

Le Corbusier and his Cabin

Why Do Conductors Use Batons?

Davide Cerullo: The Just Man of Gomorra

Fixing Our Cities with Lego

The most viewed videos on ARTE

Re: An Unconventional Retirement

The New World of Xi Jinping

Natural Disasters

Sting at the Pantheon in Paris

Lowriders of Los Angeles

Saudi Arabia: The West

How many Eastern Europes?

Pippi Longstocking