Song:Je Danse le Mia
Album:Ombre Est Lumiere
According to my research, IAM was the very first French rap group. The 1993 single Je Danse le Mia topped the French charts and IAM has been very successful in Europe. Because they rap in French, it looks like they are unknown in North America. They are from Marseille, France. The acronym IAM stands for Imperial Asiatic Men. I don't know what that means. IAM leader Philippe "Akhenaton" Fragione made regular trips to New York in the 80s to learn more about rap. After appearing on Choice MC's 1988 song This Is the B Side, he decided to form a group with Eric "DJ Kheops" Mazel and Geoffroy Shurik'n" Mussard who also rapped. They were joined by producer Pascal "Imhotep" Perez and MCs Francois "Kephren" Mendy and Malek "Freeman" Brahimi. The Egyptian thing is their trademark. They released a 1990 cassette of demos and opened for Madonna among others. They got a record deal with Virgin. Je Danse le Mia is from IAM's second album Ombre Est Lumiere. It topped the French charts. Apparently this song was a deliberate decision to make a commercial record that would sell a lot of records and make Virgin happy. The big sample is George Benson's Give Me the Night. After recording a couple more albums, IAM went on hiatus. Fragione and Mussard both had success as solo artists. IAM returned in 2013 on DefJam. They last released an album in 2019. They just aren't as successful today as they were in the 90s. Here's the video for Je Danse le Mia by IAM.
No comments:
Post a Comment