Coupe Decale Style

Coupe Decale is a type of popular dance music originating from Cote d'Ivoire and the Ivorian diaspora in Paris, France.

Drawing heavily from Zouglou and Congolese rhythms, Coupe Decale is a very percussive style featuring African samples, deep bass, and repetitive, minimalist arrangements

While Coupe Decale is known as Cote d'Ivoire's definitive pop music, it actually began in Paris, created by a group of Ivorian DJs at the Atlantis, an African nightclub in northeast Paris. These Djs, known as the 'Jet Set' became popular for their flamboyant style, often showing up at the club with large amounts of cash which they would hand out to audiences on the dance floor. Their aesthetic defined the early sounds of Coupe Decale, apparent in the genre's name. In Nouchi (Ivorian slang) Couper means to cheat and decaler means to run away, so Coupe Decale basically means to cheat somebody and run away. The 'somebody' cheated is generally interpreted to mean France or the West/Europe, finding parallels to the idea of "The Man" in American culture. Especially in the beginning, the songs often celebrated those who had used guile to 'make it' abroad.

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