Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
[MUSIC PLAYING]
CLEO LE-TAN: Oh my god.
I'm a bit scared.
Don't really like this smell.
There's loads of
things written.
"The big *** of her granny
is being *** by all the
guys from France." "***
the police."
Some people are coming.
This May, the world watched as
French President Nicolas
Sarkozy, a small elf-like
creature who dominated the
country's political landscape
the past five years, was
finally defeated by Francois
Hollande, a boring, floppy man
from the rival Socialist
Party.
The election was dominated by a
number of baffling European
financial issues.
Boring!
But what wasn't discussed was
a crisis that had been
simmering for years in the
Parisian suburbs--
the same suburbs in which, seven
years ago, two teenagers
were tasered to death while
running from the police.
As retaliation, hundreds of
residents from Parisian
council estates started rioting,
protesting against
police and their lack of
employment opportunities.
Almost 3,000 rioters were
arrested, five police officers
lost their lives, and 60
others were wounded.
Fast-forward to now, and the
media has more or less
forgotten about these areas and
the people who live there.
But every now and then, the
French Vice Office would come
across new rap artists from
these suburbs whose angry
music suggested that none of
the problems in the suburbs
had gone away.
They were all still making music
as aggressive as ever,
just like the days
when the suburbs
were going up in flames.
So we set out there to meet all
these artists and some of
their friends, and that is
why this film is called--
It's the worst candy floss
I've ever seen.
Hello, my name is Cleo.
I grew up in Paris, but I still
love all the tourist
destinations like the Louvre,
the Tuileries
Gardens, the Concorde.
I'd heard about areas like
Clichy-sous-bois and Evry in
the news, but I'd never actually
explored them.
So when Vice told me they wanted
to do a story about the
situation over there, I got
excited and I called up my
friend the director Romain
Gavras for a bit of advice.
Romain made his first videos in
the suburbs years ago and
put me in touch with a rapper
called Byron, who said he
would show me the world of
underground French rap.
So we went to meet him and he
took us to his home in Clichy.
BYRON: [SPEAKING FRENCH]
BYRON: [SPEAKING FRENCH]
CLEO LE-TAN: OK.
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
BYRON: [SPEAKING FRENCH]
BYRON: [SPEAKING FRENCH]
CLEO LE-TAN: [SPEAKING FRENCH]
BYRON: [SPEAKING FRENCH]
CLEO LE-TAN: [SPEAKING FRENCH]
BYRON: [SPEAKING FRENCH]
KYL: [RAPPING FRENCH]
CLEO LE-TAN: [SPEAKING FRENCH]
CLEO LE-TAN: Byron told us that
if we wanted to find out
about the southern part of the
suburbs, we should go and talk
to the guys from La Comera, a
rap group from Grigny, La
Grande Borne.
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
MALE SPEAKER 1:
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
MALE SPEAKER 1:
[RAPPING IN FRENCH]
CLEO LE-TAN: I really want to
talk to that other guy with
the braids, but he
seems a bit--
he's a bit scary.
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
CLEO LE-TAN: I'm a bit scared,
because he seemed a bit manic.
Are you guys going to come
with me in the car?
Should I have accepted?
Should I have gone for it?
I don't know.
Because he was driving like a
maniac earlier on, wasn't he?
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
He smelt very strongly of--
onion?
And he kept like going over me
and he was like, wait, hang
on, I'll do that for you.
And it was like a really raw,
weird smell of onion.
It wasn't like, oh my
god, you stink.
It was just weird.
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
CLEO LE-TAN: I think
he quite liked me.
I mean, he kept asking if we
were going to hang out and
stuff and when he was going to
pick me up, et cetera, et
cetera, which was a bit much.
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
CLEO LE-TAN: I don't
fancy him.
I think he's very nice,
but that's it.
MALE SPEAKER 2:
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
MALE SPEAKER 3:
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
CLEO LE-TAN: I have no idea
where we're going.
He just said come, and so
we're just following.
I just love going to
people's places.
I look around everything.
That's all I'm interested
in doing.
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
There was a mattress
against the wall.
There were some leather
couches.
There was a massive screen.
Behind that table was a
pit-bull, and he's just
sitting there the whole time.
And whenever I watched him,
he's just going like--
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
Smoked a bit of weed, had a bit
of a drink, they rapped.
They were basically blocking
all the sofas, so
nobody could sit down.
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
I was so pleased with
my first day here.
I learned how to drive, possibly
had a few dates lined
up with said driver, and met
loads of new people.
It was great.
There's a lot going on here.