MC Solaar

Claude M'Barali, known as MC Solaar, sometimes nicknamed « Claude MC », is a French-Chadian rapper, singer, actor, and poet, born on March 5, 1969, in Dakar, Senegal.

He is one of the first artists to popularise rap in France, starting in the early 1990s, with the album Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo and notably the tracks Bouge de là and Caroline (1991), then with the opuses Prose combat (1994), Paradisiaque (1997), and MC Solaar (1998). His music and the literary quality of his lyrics are the result of diverse inspirations, ranging from Serge Gainsbourg to African music (Ivorian, Malian, Chadian), as well as classic Black American music (jazz and US rap).

His concert at the Olympia in 1998 was the subject of a live album, Le Tour de la question. He subsequently released five other studio albums: Cinquième As (2001), Mach 6 (2003), Chapitre 7 (2007), Géopoétique (2017), and Triptyque (2024, in three parts).