La Haine

COMPOSERS: Mathieu Kassovitz
LABELS: Virgin/Delabel
WORKS: La Haine
CATALOGUE NO: VIR 45 S636

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Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine is a dazzling visual essay on urban disaffection on a Paris housing estate. The associated soundtrack has been conceived as a thing in itself: eleven views from the lower depths, expressed through eleven modes of rap.

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But this is French rap, sweeter and more subtle than most American varieties, and musically more interesting. The messages are what you would expect from poor blacks in a land which degrades them – anger and disgust, a resigned pessimism, but also a weird hope that the world can be made anew. These tracks build up a wonderful momentum as they surf along on their cushion of voices and drums.