[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 pussy of her granny is being fucked by all the
guys from France." "Fuck 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]
CLEO LE-TAN: OK.
[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.