Editing MC Solaar (section)

===Early life===
Claude M'Barali was born in [[Dakar|Dakar, Senegal]], to parents from [[Chad]]. When he was six months old, his parents immigrated to France where they settled in the Parisian suburbs; initially in [[Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis|Saint-Denis]], subsequently Maisons-Alfort and finally [[Villeneuve-Saint-Georges]]. When he was twelve, he went to live with an uncle in [[Cairo|Cairo, Egypt]] for nine months where he discovered the [[Universal Zulu Nation]] and became fascinated with the rapping styles of [[Afrika Bambaataa]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Q&A|publisher=[[CNN International]]|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/02/03/cairo.qa/|access-date=12 December 2006}}</ref> Upon his return to France, he passed the [[baccalauréat]]. The constant support from his mother was one of the reasons that he was able to pass the baccalauréat and still make music. He coined the stage name "MC Solaar" during his adolescence from his graffiti tags "SOAR" and "SOLAAR".<ref name="islandia biography"/>

[[File:MC Solaar on Zulu Nation.ogg|thumb|MC Solaar describing his early influences before a London gig in 2011, to radio producer Pete Shevlin]]

He studied languages at the [[Jussieu Campus|Jussieu university campus]] and was a postgraduate in philosophy. He released his first single in 1990. MC Solaar went to Paris in the summer of 1991 with his friend Jimmy Jay in hopes of succeeding in the music industry. Success came quickly when his first single, "Bouge de là" ("Get Out of There"), based on a sample from [[Cymande]]'s song "The Message" (1973) became a hit in the early 1990s. Many rappers who came out of Africa at the time spoke a lot about slavery and other topics in order to bring the history of their people into light.<ref name="autogenerated1">Helenon, Veronique. "Africa on Their Mind: Rap, Blackness, and Citizenship in France." In ''The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Glmmobalization of Black Popular Culture'', ed. by Dipannita Basu and Sidney J. Lemelle, London; Ann Arbor, Michigan: Pluto Press, 2006. pp.151-66.</ref> Nevertheless, the song went platinum in France and reached #5 on the national charts.