Abd al Malik’s “Meta-French” Perspective: An Audiovisual Approach to French Universalism and Difference-Consciousness

This article develops an audiovisual approach attuned to the lyrical and musical décalages between the sonic and the scopic in three of Abd al Malik’s most celebrated albums: Gibraltar (2006), Dante (2008), and Scarifications (2015). I propose that this audiovisual approach unlocks Abd al Malik’s “meta-French” perspective that underscores how difference-consciousness pervades French republican universalism. Ultimately, the works I analyze borrow from and build on French cultural patrimony to reveal how notions of Frenchness and alterity circulate in contemporary French media, all the while participating in these same processes.