Hello! As a newly arrived Reddit refugee I thought I would try to contribute. I might start posting individual tracks if I sense interest but for now, let's start with a broader overview.
There is a branch of hip hop very close to my heart, one that has a relaxed, elaborate ambience on boom bap beats with twists.
I won't pretend I have historian level of knowledge but you can think of it as a continuation of artists like nightmares on wax, tricky, etc but also massive attack, portishead and that kind of more melodic trip hop. Some of it mixed with traditional rapping.
This all mixes into the French melting pot and you get this back and forth between traditional hip hop with a rapper, and this abstract, melodic Trip-Hop scene. You'll also find influences from reggae, dub, punk, rock, jazz, Celtic, Arabic, oriental etc etc etc, since this is very much a world of samples, while some artists do compose everything themselves.
Now of course all these things exist outside of France but I've explored a lot, I don't even live in France and I listen to many genres, and for me at least it's in the French artists from which I tend to find "that sound" that works for me.
Now to get you started on the journey, some of the more mainstream artists to search for in your preferred streaming service. I keep it to things international people can listen to (e.g. no/limited French lyrics).
-
Chinese man (the masters, within this artist alone you can find many of the substyles I'm talking about I prefer the older albums by I hear youngsters enjoy the new stuff)
-
Degiheugi (more modern and his own unique twist, kinda tropical)
-
Chill Bump (these guys are more traditionally hip hop, the lyrics are in English, but you can still sense the influence)
-
Kognitif (this is very much the essence of what trip hop means to me)
-
Guts (here you'll find more ethnic influences, he also makes live musicians participate to his productions)
-
Scratch Bandit Crew (not a fan of the whole discography but the good tracks are really, really good)
-
Mounika (and finally, one of my all time favourites in his decidedly more chill and dark vibe, bordering on lo-fi at times).
There are so many more great artists and if you did want to try one with French lyrics, then in the more traditionally hip hop category but embodying this branch, I suggest starting with "Dooz Kawa".
I hope that I might make a few people curious with this and maybe even create a new passion or two for my beloved flavour of trip/hip hop.
Share your own regional artists that you think upstage the usual international stars in their own way!
The kid goes hard haha, tell him an internet stranger thinks his comics are very cool!