EVERY GENRE PROJECT - June 16 - Coupé-décalé
Genre of the Day - Coupé-décalé
Album of the Day - Danbe by Supreme Talent Show (2015)
June 16, 2024
Today’s music dunks on France’s seedy colonial history by sheer virtue of the capacity to combine rhythms from around the Francophone world and transfix the combination with creativity. It’s a conversation among decolonized peoples from around the same linguistic sphere, particularly youth looking to shake off the troubles of unstable times and reclaim power through music.
Though the music at hand today is thoroughly African, it’s a commentary on how musical innovation flows from one country to diaspora centers and back, snowballing with more complexity as it absorbs different forms of music. In coupé-décalé, the conduit is Paris: the city acts as a hub for African immigrants from Francophone nations across the continent, from Senegal to the Congo. DJs from the Ivory Coast, or as I’ll indulge any French-speaking friends today, Côte d’Ivoire brought zouglou to the Parisian musical potluck, a genre that had become the sound of Ivorian students motioning for democracy in the 1990s.
Côte d’Ivoire’s students did not see that hope for democracy come to pass. When group efforts and protest faltered, a different musical direction emerged in coupé-décalé, one that lays claim to power through individual expression amidst politically gridlocked and tumultuous periods. I’ve seen two explanations for the origin of coupé-décalé as a term: one argues that it comes from a dance, and another argues that it comes from the words couper meaning to cheat someone and decaler meaning to run away, as a metaphor of Ivorians Robin Hood-ing the French as they get rich in the once-metropole.
It’s a bit of a chicken and the egg problem, as they’re intertwined with no indication of which came first, but the second explanation is a potent introduction to what the scene looked like in its early days simmering in Parisian clubs before being imported back to Côte d’Ivoire. Ivorian DJs would flaunt their wealth, and a pioneering crew in the sound who dubbed themselves the Jet Set would casually toss out stacks of cash at the function. Besides this frivolity and glorification of increasing individual power through financial enrichment, the genre played fast and loose with their early dance stylings. Some point out the way coupé-décalé has represented a complete 180 from the topics at hand of zouglou, which were more purposeful and serious regarding political problems. Coupé-décalé represented a less self-serious pivot and hope for a joyful life through financial success. Out-of-pocket topic choices reflected this flair: this song features a dance move mimicking being chained in Guantanamo, a truly unhinged 2000s time capsule.
Coupé-décalé’s hedonism, vivacity, and room for a variety of dance styles with the anchor of strong bass, older samples, and rapid percussion has led it to become the defining pop music of Côte d’Ivoire in the last two decades, spilling over into neighboring countries like Mali where today’s duo hails from. This 2015 set sees a take on coupé-décalé that represents the genre as a wide, cross-continental conversation between the pioneering Ivorian DJs in Paris, the trap blowing up among Black Americans at the time, regionally definitional polyrhythms, and local Malian instrumentation traditions. Mèlékè Thiathio and MC Waraba infuse their coupé-décalé with equal parts synthesized drum spirit (“Dalama Do”) and the high-octane sound of West African polyrhythms (“SIDA”) and Malian parties featuring the balafon, a xylophone that resonates through gourds (see bangers like “Nee” and “Kodo Kuma Sera.”) It’s a raucous, unfettered stream of energy: the only other thing you could need getting hype while listening to this are stacks of cash to throw while listening to it.