The dearth of inspirational rap lyricists makes French hip-hop's language barrier seem less significant. If you find yourself listening to rap for the sound rather than the meaning, why restrict yourself to English-speaking MCs?

Saïan Supa Crew had help from anglophone MCs, including Roots Manuva and Brand Nubian, in rejigging their 2001 album X Raisons for a global audience - but it's the sextet's native tongue, often delivered at helter-skelter velocity, that gives the album its energy and charisma.

The production, meanwhile, requires no translation. As nimble, playful and melodic as Jurassic 5 or A Tribe Called Quest, it's for those who like their hip-hop fun-sized (one track replicates Hendrix's Voodoo Chile with a human beatbox). And if you're bilingual enough to unpick their peppery commentary on the police, gang violence and religion from the dense tangles of French slang, then that's a bonus.