« Dans la rue et le bitume ne poussent que les fleurs du mal » : jouer et déjouer Charles Baudelaire et sa poésie dans le rap français

Abstract

Baudelaire is amongst the French poets who have most often been set to music. However, some adaptations of his poetry are too loose to be considered as song settings. It is the case for numerous rap songs that cite, sample, or reword Baudelaire’s poems. This article examines representations and performances of Baudelaire’s poetry through a cultural, textual, and musical perspective. Baudelaire appears to be a benchmark that rap artists celebrate to legitimise their work or that they reject to mark a distance with the French literary canon and related institutional values. The performed intertextuality at stake shows however a revocation of traditional oppositions between rap and poetry, highbrow art and popular art. Instead, a rich network linked to urban culture and the exploitation of sonic connections is created between poetry, mélodie, chanson, and rap.

Keywords

• Baudelaire (Charles)
• hip hop
• rap
• adaptation
• intertextuality
• urbanity