Wednesday 24 April 2013

Iam: Arts Martiens


Marseilles hip hop act Iam have realeased a new album, Arts martiens, and its already on

The album comes six years after the last release by Iam, 2007's Saison 5.

The five piece, Akhenaton, Shurik'n, Khéops, Imhotep and Kephren have been active since 1989, and were one of the first really great French hip hop acts that I became aware of, initially though their soundtrack for the film Taxi.

They were one of the biggest rap acts of the 90s in France, their major commercial breakthrough coming with their '97 album L'École du micro d'argent, one of the best selling hip hop albums ever in French music history.

Arts martiens found itself at the top of the iTunes chart in France immediately on its release, and looks set to be one of this year's biggest selling collection in the genre.

The track Notre dame veille continues the band expressing their relationship with their home town of Marseille, a city perhaps better known at the moment for its culture of gun violence as it is for being this year's European City of Culture.

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