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Aug 8, 2010

Trueschool Monday #28


Suprême NTM (or simply NTM) is a French hip hop group formed in 1989 in the Seine-Saint-Denis département. The group comprises rappers Joey Starr (born Didier Morville) and Kool Shen (born Bruno Lopès). Their six albums were released by Sony Music Entertainment.
The group takes its name from the French slang "NTM", an abbreviation for "Nique Ta Mère" ("Nique" is derived from the shortening of the french word "forniquer"(fornicate)) meaning "Fuck Your Mother". NTM is known for their hostility towards the police, violent lyrics, and legal battles with the French authorities. Their musical style is predominantly hardcore rap, although later albums include funk, soul and reggae influences.

The group is outspokenly critical of racism and class inequality in French society, and while their earlier music is violent, some of their later work, such as "Pose ton Gun" ("Put down your Gun"), is explicitly anti-violent.

In 1998, the group released its last album of original material under the NTM moniker, as both Joey Starr and Kool Shen started their own labels, promoting new bands and branching out in other fields such as the clothing industry (2High is Kool Shen's brand, Com-8 is Joey Starr's).

While officially the band still exists, and its well-known name was used in 2001 to promote a 'duel' album pitting the two label's artists against each other, Kool Shen was quoted in 2004 saying "on a fini avec NTM en 98" ("We were done with NTM in 1998").

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