IAM is a French rap group founded in Marseille in 1988, composed of Akhenaton, Shurik'n, Kheops, Imhotep and Kephren. Considered one of the founding fathers of French rap alongside MC Solaar and Suprême NTM, the group forged a unique identity from the outset — deeply rooted in its city while claiming a universal reach. Their name, inspired by the “I AM A MAN” signs carried by American civil rights activists, encapsulates their philosophy in a single sentence: “Through rap, we show that we exist.”
After releasing their first album in 1991, ...De la planète Mars, the group gradually established itself within the French musical landscape. It was Ombre est lumière in 1993, followed by the summer hit Je danse le mia, that revealed them to the wider public far beyond initiated circles. In 1995, they won the Victoire de la Musique award for Group of the Year.
But it was in 1997 that everything changed. L’École du micro d’argent became a cultural phenomenon: certified gold in just two days, it sold over one and a half million copies and achieved diamond status in 2005. Petit frère, Nés sous la même étoile, Demain c’est loin — songs that have since entered the pantheon of French rap history. That same year, the group founded its own label, Côté Obscur, asserting an artistic independence they would never abandon.
The albums followed one another — Revoir un printemps, Saison 5, Arts martiens, Rêvolution, Yasuke — each demonstrating an undiminished rigor and an ability to reinvent themselves without ever betraying their foundations. In 2015, they received an honorary Victoire de la Musique award for their overall contribution to French rap. In 2020, the five members were named Officers of the Order of Arts and Letters. Thirty-seven years after their beginnings, IAM continues to write its story — proof, if any were needed, that certain works do not age: they deepen.
Marseille, its lights, its shadows, its silences — IAM has made them the very substance of its work. It was therefore only natural that the Baumettes prison door exhibition, born from the depths of the city they have sung about for decades, would call upon them. On one of the prison doors, Akhenaton and Shurik’n engraved their mark — not as yet another symbolic gesture, but as the logical extension of an entire career devoted to giving a voice to those who are too often unheard.
