Dakar-born, platinum-selling star MC Solaar may have fathered the now rudely French hip hop scene, but denies he is a rapper, rather describing his “talking over” as “underground and popular as the Metro.” True, the Parisian’s warm and sensual, mellifluous rhyming has always been a million miles away from the style of his American peers, and his sixth studio album is no exception. “Mach 6”, however, sees him shifting musically, adding elements of bhangra (on “Au Pays De Gandhi”) and kwassa-kwassa (“Hijo De Africa”) to his familiar jazz-toned and strings-bedecked hip hop. Save for the saccharine polyglot pop of “Today Is A Good Day”, it’ an(other) engagingly poetic outing.
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