The French Embassy’s Cultural Affairs office is sponsoring a three week event in New York City called “I Kiffe New York” promoting French urban culture through music, dance, film and talks.

In collaboration with the CMJ Music Marathon next week (brought to us by The Bloom Effect), the HIRO ballroom will feature a French hip hop showcase on October 24th featuring the amazing La Caution, Mangu and Wax Tailor.

La Caution is a French hip hop duo consisting of members Hi-Tekk and Nikkfurie. They are notable for creating the song “Thé à la Menthe” which is known for appearing (in instrumental form) in the film Ocean’s Twelve. Armed with an obviously unique musical identity, the two brothers from Noisy-Le-Sec (Paris suburbs), made a solid reputation for themselves by relentlessly touring and taking part in numerous albums, projects, mixtapes and movie soundtracks since 1996.

Their musical style is seen to be a combination of energetic electronic sonorities and original and percussive words. Wanting to break away from the current French rap, they brought a revival which now tends to spread out further than the Parisian underground, along with groups such as TTC.

The various musical influences give to La Caution a way to regenerate the richness of Hip Hop with all its spontaneity and the fruits of its inventiveness. The diverse projects since the beginnings of the band shows definitely and once more that La Caution represents, thanks to the maturity and the identity of its sounds, one of the most interesting band taking all kind of music together in the French scene.

La Caution - Thé à la menthe

Mangu is a Dominican native now living in France, but got his start as a live performer in Miami. His fresh blend of urban and Caribbean vibes create a unique live stage show. He was featured at an early age on remix singles with dancehall heavyweights Bigga and Papa San, attracting the attention of producer Joe Galdo and signing to Island Records. His first single was “La Playa” (and Hype Williams directed video) featuring legendary Cuban pianist Paquito Hechavaria. After the success of “La Playa” Mangu released his first full length self entitled album featuring support from musical giants like Johnny Pacheco, Beenie Man, Betty Wright and Carlton Coffey (Inner Circle). The single “Calle Luna Calle Sol” and the success of the album gave Mangu the opportunity to perform not only in the States but Latin America and Europe.

In France, he recieved the RFI (Radio France International) discovery artist of the year award for his first album. For his second release Mangu, relocated to France and partnered with French indie label Naive to release his second album “Mi Familia”. This time around Mangu chose a less traditional latin sound and went more urban. With the help of super engineer Dexter Simmons (Outkast, Andre 3000), the new album is a blend of Mangu’s latin lingo in a new school way.

Mangu - Calle Luna Calle Sol

Wax Tailor, aka JC Le Saout, made a remarkable impact worldwide with his debut “Tales of the Forgotten Melodies”. A sweeping, cinematic hip-hop album that had critics citing similarities to DJ Shadow, RJD2 and Portishead, “Tales” propelled this Frenchman to stardom in his home country and his debut was heralded as Radio Nova’s album of the year. Stateside, “Tales” spent 28 straight weeks in the iTunes Top Electronic Albums and remains there to date. The album topped the CMJ Hip Hop and RPM charts (16 and 13 weeks in the top 20, respec-tively) and tastemaker radio station, KEXP in Seattle, deemed it one of the best albums of 2006. The breakout single “Our Dance” was herald-ed as one of the best singles of the year in Playboy Magazine as well as iTunes.

An artist’s second album is often seen as the moment of truth. Released in spring 2007 “Hope & Sorrow,” (50,000 copies sold just in France) has been plebiscited by public, press & radios (nominated to French music award & US Indie music awards). Wax Tailor confirms his musical identity. Often categorized as trip-hop or down tempo hip-hop, Wax Tailor breaks musical barriers using a sonic palette to demonstrate his life chronicles tainted in soul, jazz, and funk.

Wax Tailor - Hope & Sorrow Trailer