40 years ago, when rap culture crackled in the neighborhoods of the Bronx, Queens or Brooklyn, "there weren't tons of goals, a little bit, but I often had to be alone, it must be said that it represented nothing for anyone at that time", smiles Sophie Bramly, met in Paris by AFP.

You can see some of his images at the "Hip-Hop 360" exhibition at La Philharmonie in Paris, until July.

But there is above all "Yo!", a book devoted to his photographs (at Soul Jazz).

Throughout the pages, we come across precursors of rap, whose names have not necessarily reached the ears of the general public, such as Afrika Bambaataa or Kool Herc.

We also see the Futura 2000 graffiti artist, before he became a star in the industry, jumping the subway turnstile.

"Magic potion"

Proximity and complicity with the subjects transpire.

Her "two gateways", as she calls them, are Bernard Zekri, a Frenchman living in New York, considered one of the smugglers of hip-hop (he will be a journalist, producer, etc.) and a "girlfriend who went out with (the graffiti artist) Fab Five Freddy".

At the time, at 22, Sophie Bramly went to a Parisian school of graphic arts and first steps as a magazine photographer before attempting the adventure in New York.

In sight, freelancing for Paris Match and a photo agency.

But on the other side of the Atlantic, it is not overwhelmed by orders.

"It was a mess, but my petty bourgeois problems were nothing compared to the life of hip-hop people in the Bronx, an area that looked like a country at war, with more destroyed buildings than standing".

"All the disciplines of hip-hop, graffiti, music, dance, serve to make the ugly beautiful, to find its place in the desert: this vitality, this kind of magic potion, I allowed myself to absorb it with them".

"Board the whole planet"

Some images are full of tenderness, like when she enters the rooms of budding rappers/graffiti artists who still live with their mothers and don't think of a career.

"It's crazy, the 152 people I listed at the time - whose notoriety for many stopped at the corner of the street - managed to embark the whole planet with them".

Photographer Sophie Bramly in Paris, January 25, 2022 JOEL SAGET AFP

"Today, people (...) are under the influence of this hip-hop culture, which is everywhere, without the pioneers always being thanked".

Anecdotes flow.

"One day, a guy makes me listen to a song on his ghetto-blaster (huge radio-cassette popular in the 70s, editor's note) that drives me crazy, he calls me months later, says + go get the record at Rick Rubin's dorm room+, and I end up with +Cooky Puss+".

This is the title of the first track of the Beastie Boys, one of the leading groups of American hip-hop.

And Rick Rubin will become an essential producer, having notably propelled the Red Hot Chili Peppers in the 1990s.

Sophie Bramly's story then takes unexpected turns.

Thanks to her connections, she finds herself among the builders of HIPHOP, the first TV show on rap in France, short-lived and which has become cult.

Or producer-host in London of "Yo!", the first show on rap coaxed by MTV Europe, which will become "Yo! MTV Raps" for the USA.

Today, the 60-year-old still takes pictures and works on projects for TV or other media that revolve around music or street culture.

“I am often told, + you have always had the instinct to know where to be +, but what instinct? I only listened to the music”.

© 2022 AFP