{"id":7664,"date":"2021-04-05T10:13:37","date_gmt":"2021-04-05T01:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tansa-en.test-server.world\/?post_type=columnists&p=7664"},"modified":"2021-04-05T10:13:37","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T01:13:37","slug":"423","status":"publish","type":"columnists","link":"https:\/\/tansa-en.test-server.world\/?columnists=423","title":{"rendered":"4:23"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

I often listen to hip hop on my way to work. To me, it\u2019s a natural association \u2014 after all, when it comes to waxing poetic about \u201cthe pen,\u201d rappers certainly give journalists a run for their money.<\/p>\n

Hip hop first captured my imagination in my fourth year of high school, in AP French class. All the students \u2014 myself included, I have to admit \u2014 were keen to study topics that were nice and light. You know, French food and the like. But the teacher had other plans: It seemed to be her mission to introduce us to social issues facing the Francophone world. But how to get the kids engaged? It was time to roll out a Trojan horse called music.<\/p>\n

The track was \u201cRegarde-moi<\/a> (See me)\u201d by Soprano, a French rapper of Comorian descent who proudly reps his hometown of Marseilles. What surprised 17-year-old me was that, in the four minutes and 23 seconds of \u201cRegarde-moi,\u201d Soprano was able to paint a vivid picture of stratified French society through intertwining stories.<\/p>\n

Each verse of \u201cRegarde-moi\u201d is from the perspective of a different character. The first is a son of immigrants, who studies hard with the hope of being able to lift his family out of poverty. But, \u201coverqualified and too dark,\u201d he can\u2019t find decent work to support his wife and child. \u201cAll the doors were closed,\u201d he despairs and, in the end, turns to crime.<\/p>\n

In the second verse, a French teenager \u2014 from a broken home and with \u201cher head full of debts\u201d \u2014 attempts suicide following her pregnacy and being abandoned by the child\u2019s father.<\/p>\n

And finally, the story of said father, the son of a wealthy family who \u201cgraduated from a private school without lifting a finger\u201d and \u201ctours the world by private jet.\u201d But, hearing of the girl\u2019s suicide attempt, he goes to withdraw cash for her from the bank \u2014 when the man from verse one enters, holding a gun.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegarde-moi!\u201d shout the son of immigrants, the desperate teenager. \u201cI am the France you don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

No other genre of music could present such a drama so efficiently, in so much detail. I was amazed to find you could tell stories like this.<\/p>\n

The more I listened to hip hop, the more I grew to love it. The wordplay, the beats that make me want to move. The rappers\u2019 unapologetic pride and confidence, amid a world that would strip them of it. Their struggle against power.<\/p>\n

It may sound strange, but I try to emulate hip hop when I write or translate for Tansa. I\u2019m sure plenty of writers do this, but every article that goes on our English site gets read aloud, multiple times. Does it have rhythm, momentum? Is it a pleasure to read, not just from the subject, but from the language itself? Are the voices clear and strong?<\/p>\n

Plenty of articles clock in with a read time of about four minutes. I don\u2019t want to waste a single second.<\/p>\n

(Originally published in Japanese<\/a> on July 14, 2020. Self-translated.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"template":"","columnists_category":[40],"columnists_oneshot":[],"class_list":["post-7664","columnists","type-columnists","status-publish","hentry","columnists_category-five-senses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tansa-en.test-server.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/columnists\/7664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tansa-en.test-server.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/columnists"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tansa-en.test-server.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/columnists"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tansa-en.test-server.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tansa-en.test-server.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"columnists_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tansa-en.test-server.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcolumnists_category&post=7664"},{"taxonomy":"columnists_oneshot","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tansa-en.test-server.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcolumnists_oneshot&post=7664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}