Most French hip hop artists come from poor suburbs of Paris, Lyon, Lill

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Most French hip hop artists come from poor suburbs of Paris, Lyon, Lille, Le Havre, Strasbourg, Toulouse or Marseille. France has had a wide social safety net, meaning that poverty has rarely been as extreme in France's North and West African communities (where most of the artists have their roots); however, most performers come from HLM housing projects inhabited primarily by poor Africans and Arabs.

The majority of French rappers are descended from African and DOM-TOM immigrants. Even though some of the pioneers like Lionel D and DJ Dee Nasty are not of African descent, Africans have dominated the music scene. However, contrarily to the USA, racially mixed groups have always been very common in France. Many of the most important rappers in France are Caucasian (Kool Shen (of Portuguese and French descent), Akhenaton (of Italian descent), Diam's (of Cypriot and French descent), & Sinik (Of Kabylian and French descent)). Many are also immigrants from former French colonies who have moved to France for education or a better life. MC Solaar, who was born in Senegal, released his first CD in 1991. Within France, the two cities with the largest hip hop scene are Marseille and Paris (the majority of French rappers come from the suburbs of Paris.).

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