We like Claude. His crooning voice, his gentle gaze. We remember Caroline and Victime de la mode. His genuine niceness makes it even harder. Like saying to a friend who often cooks you dinner that you don't like their food. Because that's the problem, nothing has really changed as far as Solaar is concerned, his voice hasn't changed an ounce, his easy, almost facile rhymes, could almost have already featured on one of his previous albums, and as for the mixes, some nice finds manage to offset some rather clumsy moments. Unfortunately it doesn't really work. At one time, there was talk of a possible collaboration with the ex-colleague Jimmy Jay. But no, Solaar wanted to move on to something different. So he signed up as artistic director of Cinquième as.

Taking up the offensive, and possibly with the intention of putting his rivals in their place - Gyneco and Co, - who are sure to, at best, ignore him, and at worst, run him down, Solaar has come back to the beginnings of the MC adventure, the time of, Lève-toi et rap: "They were jealous of me because I had what they wanted A style of my own and the verb in the past perfect…" And further on: " I walk with my head down, don't flaunt any jewels". The aim is clear, to those who think that rap is high and mighty and has to contain elements of showing-off, Solaar reacts by playing the role of the humble and modest person. In any case, his name is always mentioned in conjunction with Gainsbourg, Queneau and Ferré (it's true!). A lot is expected of Solaar, perhaps due to a lack of true French authors? Rap references, mainly West Coast, only appear later on the scene. The suburbs with their bad boys seem far away.

In any case, Solaar aims higher and further. Les colonies attacks with a theme which is pretty frequent at a time when the word globalisation finds itself on the front page of every paper, "We have had colonies, cannibalism/Treason, the slave treaty, global debt, the IMF". A quick listen to Arkansas, and we are plunged into the world of Steve Carter, a little eight-year-old American whose favourite game consists of playing with guns until that fateful day when someone gets killed. Here MC shows his enjoyment of creating atmospheres such as are found in American films, filled with golden light and dust galore. Followed up by Dégâts collatéraux, and a more aggressive tone as regards "Gratuitous violence, under pressure to be tense/and if you raise your voice, after oppression comes repression". This is followed straight away with RMI where some African child choirs come to break up the simplistic song "This millenium is monetary/the people are unpopular". The shortest clichés are always the best.
But Solaar also wants to be light. He knows how to have fun and especially with the latino wave and the hit Hasta la vista whose chorus, if it didn't concern our national rapper, would remind us of a certain Nathalie Cardone who sang the hugely famous song Hasta siempre. But let's not be so uncompromising, as we can catch up with La Belle et le Bad boy and its chorus "The sub-groups within the big groups get together/Beauty and the bad boy" which don't stop hassling us from morning to night. Stop…I'll stop there. No. A quick last one for the road. Solaar the poet writes in La la la la "2ème étape, Sound boy, move your body/Annie Cordy, Jordy, I'm coming, just like Berry Gordy". All that with childrens' choirs on top singing la la la la. Enough to drive you nuts.

But where are you Claude, the poet Solaar? Not here, for sure. We didn't intend to get to this point, to be tearing Cinquième as apart. And just look at what we found…