11 Current French Rappers That You Should Listen to Now

The French rap industry emerged in the 90s and was an underground culture for many years in France. It started with French hip-hop in Paris with some French rap artists that became famous such as MC Solaar or NTM or the most famous French rap DJ: Dee Nasty.

In the last decade, French rap became the mainstream music style in France and many different types of artists established themselves.

I made a selection of eleven current French rappers with a song that I liked for them. I decided to choose different styles of French rap music.

Here is a video from French Iceberg on the best French rap songs of 2022:

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List of the Best French Rappers

Let’s start this list of recent French rappers!

1. Kekra

I am a big fan of this French rapper from the suburb of Paris: Courbevoie. The cover picture was taken in my hometown when I went to his concert in February 2019. The French musician Kekra has an original speech about himself and his career. He feels kind of ashamed and not really proud of it. He would have preferred to become a lawyer or doctor and live his life anonymously with his parents proud of him.

Being a famous rapper is not a definition of success for him. This is the reason why he always wears a mask and sunglasses to stay anonymous. The French rap song “C’est bon”, is part of the good album “Land”.

C’est bon

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2. Vald

Vald is now one of the main rappers in France with big streaming numbers on Spotify and YouTube. We can easily classify his rap in the troll rap category. “Désaccordé” is one of the big French rap hits of the year 2018 from the album “XEU”. He came back in 2022 with the excellent album “V”.

Papoose

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3. Ninho

William Nzobazola known as Ninho is also one of the most important French rappers. He is a Parisian rapper born in the county of Essone from his parents with Congolese origins. He started to rap at a young age at the age of 12. He started his music career by releasing mixtapes. In 2016, he released the mixtape ‘M.I.L.S “, an acronym for “Maintenant Ils Le  Savent” (= Now They Know) which will launch his career. A year later he released his first album “Comme prévu” with successful singles such as “Roro”, “Chino” and some prestigious features with Nekfeu, Gradur, and Sofiane.

In 2019, his second album will be a success too and Ninho will become the most-streamed French artist this same year on every music platforms. In 2020, he released his third album “M.I.L.S 3.0” and the single “Lettre à une femme” exploded the music charts. In 2021, he released a new album “Jefe” with the hit of the same name “Jefe” which is again a big success in the French rap music industry.

Jefe

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4. SCH

SCH is part of the French rappers from the city of the south of France, Marseille. Two cities gave the French rap scene lot of French artists, Paris the capital, and Marseille. This song of SCH was in honor of his father just after he passed away.

Otto

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5. Nusky

The French rapper does not look at all like a rapper and this is why I really like this French artist. He released this single “Gabrielle Solis” in 2018. He started in the art world first by acting and came later to rap. Besides rap, he played guitar in a rock band and he formed a duo beatmaker duo named Vaati. He definitely has more than one string to his bow.

Gabrielle Solis (Youtube link)

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6. Niska

This Parisian rapper became famous in France with the Charo dance that he invented. Charo comes from the French word Charognard (Scavenger).

This dance begins to be viral in France when the footballer Blaise Matuidi took it over and performed it after each of his goals. It was then renamed “Matuidi Charo”. Later, he came back with this famous French music that was everywhere.

Salé (YouTube link)

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7. PNL

PNL is a French rap group that you cannot miss in France. The title“91’s” is definitely one of my favorite songs from those two rappers. Fun fact, the two artists are also brothers.

91’s

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8. JUL

I knew that one day I was going to write about the French musician Jul. You can recognize instantly his songs because he has a unique style using for example autotune. He is from Marseille and rap about friendship and love. Lots of French are really negative about him and do not consider him an artist.

I have to admit that I like his songs and sometimes my friends blame me for putting on his songs. The French rapper is really, really productive, he produces around three albums per year! “Asalto” is one of the many songs that I enjoy listening to Jul. His hand sign which you can see above represents the three letters of his name. French people love to take pictures doing it as a joke.

Asalto

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9. Lomepal

Lomepal is probably actually the most famous French rapper. He sings mostly about love stories. I like the song Paradise from Lefa where Lomepal did a collaboration. “Paradise” is about a love story that (you guessed) turns out badly.

Paradise Lefa ft Lomepal (YouTube link)

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10. Gringe

Gringe belongs to the French rap duo “Les Casseurs Flowters” with Orelsan. In this French song, Gringe invited some of the best French rappers in “Qui dit mieux”. From this album “Enfant Lune” I also enjoy the song “Déchiré”.

Qui dit mieux ft Orelsan Vald & Suikon Blaz AD (YouTube link) 

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11. Orelsan

The French rapper Orelsan created a famous French song that is now in French pop culture and many people make reference to it with the famous “Simple, basique”. I wrote an article about the lyrics of Basique. He is back in 2021 with a new album named ” Civilisation”, an album between love and hate.

L’odeur de l’essence

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I hope you liked this article about my selection of French rappers. I invite you to read my articles about:

• 5 French Rap Songs from 2019 That You Should Know
• 5 French Rap Songs from 2020 That You Should Know
• Top 10 French Rap Songs of 2021
• Top 10 French Rap Songs of 2022

Find the Spotify playlist here: