Popular Culture Review 30.1
the first true hardcore female rapper , and her approach has been further copied and emulated by others in recent years , notably by the contemporary Marseille-based radical artist Keny Arcana . Bams was a very popular and rappeuse whose lyrics were far more revolutionary than the time when they were released in the 1990s , when women in French hip-hop avoided confrontational thematic subject matter . In other words , despite the fact that male artists had been addressing themes of social resistance to the political order for years , Bams was the first female rapper to cast away any reluctance to tackle these subjects in the same fashion as men in French hip-hop , which was atypical for a woman artist . Although she received critical acclaim for her work , Bams ’ popularity was short-lived and she did not enjoy the same amount of sustained commercial success as Lady Laistee . After Bams ’ success waned , she moved to other educational-type projects that have had a lasting impact . Amongst other things , Bams became the co-founder and later editor of Respect Magazine , which is a popular bi-monthly magazine whose target audience is youth of color in France . Several years would pass until another female would gain any sort of popular visible prominence in French hip-hop .
TEACHING FROM THE PLATFORM OF A MÉGASTAR
The immediate years following Bams ’ success did not see the emergence of any notable female rap talent on a grand scale , though a little-known rapper by the name of Diam ’ s ( née : Mélanie Georgiades ) started gaining notoriety for her unique rhyming , smooth lyrical delivery , and stylistic technique . Diam ’ s would soon become the highest-grossing female rapper ever seen in French hip-hop to date , and one of the best-selling Francophone musical artists of all time . Born in Cyprus of a French mother and a Cypriot father , Diam ’ s
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