Despite not speaking French, I have been a fan of the French rapper Claude M’Barali, aka MC SOLAAR, since 1997. I was introduced to him through a jazzy compilation CD of trip-hop called Rebirth of Cool, Vol. 3, which included his hit song “Nouveau Western.” In the decades since, I’ve acquired just about everything he has ever recorded and even flew across the Atlantic to see him perform live in Nantes in 2024. 

About six months before that show, I decided I needed to at least learn some French so that I could better appreciate his work. I had a working understanding of his lyrics by way of the internet and Google Translate up to this point, but I wanted to go further. It should be noted that I suck at conversational languages. I was quite good at Latin in middle school, but that was because I was not required to hear or speak it. Over the years, I’ve crashed out of both formal and informal attempts to learn Italian, Indonesian, Spanish and Hawaiian. French was the original disaster, a bitter ex-pat from World War II castigating me as a 7-year old for my inability to master “Frère Jacques” in a musty basement full of moth-eaten berets, broken accordions and probably dead mimes. I decided to defuse that awful memory and I’ve now been grinding away on Duolingo for 18 months. I still suck, but I can sorta work my way around written French, including following along with MC Solaar’s written lyrics. 

Like most rappers, MC Solaar does a lot of name-checking throughout his work, but this is one of those areas that truly sets him apart and makes him unique. American rappers typically stick to name-checking luxury brands, athletes and fellow rappers. Claude, who went to university for philosophy and languages, shouts out obscure filmmakers, philosophers, French pop icons and events of historical significance. Par example, in the span of a single song –  “Les Temps Changent” (The Times are Changing) – he makes references to an 18^th Cenutry Japanese ronin, a surrealist Belgian illustrator, an F1 race car driver from Quebec, the assassination of Anwar Sadat and, inexplicably, kangaroos. With the exception of Sadat (and kangaroos, obviously), I was unfamiliar these references and it sent me down some fascinating rabbit holes. 

I was then compelled to go back to the original source of my fandom – “Nouveau Western.” It is a song that I have listened to no less than one thousand times. I had translated the lyrics years ago and I knew most of the name-checks (Gary Cooper, Calamity Jane, Cinemascope et al.) but he ends the song with a distinct name that had never previously registered with me, Miguelito Loveless. After all this time, I finally looked him up. It is, in fact, a reference to a fictional character in the 1960’s western-science fiction TV show, The Wild, Wild West. (Yes, the 1999 Will Smith box-office disaster of the same name is loosely based on the show.) In the original series, Dr. Miguelito Loveless is a brilliant, evil scientist played deliciously by Michael Dunn, who is determined to eliminate the show’s star, James West (also name-checked by Solaar), played by Robert Conrad. 

Michael Dunn’s life is itself worth its own biopic. He was born in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl in 1934 and afflicted with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, a condition of dwarfism that would limit his height to 3’10” as an adult. It would be a contributing factor to his early death at the age of 38, but while he was with us he would weave a fascinating creative CV that culminated in a Tony nomination for his performance in Edward Albee’s play “The Ballad of the Sad Café” and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in Ship of Fools.

Dunn is probably best remembered, however, for his recurring role in “The Wild, Wild West” as the cognac quaffing, ballad singing Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless, the criminal genius hell-bent on dispatching the show’s star, James West. Dunn was memorably paired with 7-foot-tall Richard Kiel (aka ‘Jaws’ from the James Bond franchise) and Phoebe Dorin, who plays his fetching assistant and singing partner, Antoinette. 

This show was completely unknown to me until MC Solaar led me to it. Thankfully, it streams free on Pluto TV. I’ve only caught a couple of episodes so far, but I find it to be quite entertaining. It’s like a strange mash-up of James Bond, The Prisoner and Bonanza. (Dunn appears in an episode of Bonanza as well. And Star Trek. The man had a wonderfully eclectic career.) Additionally, the title and bumper animation for The Wild, Wild West is spectacular and feels as though it may have rubbed off a bit on Jim Henson and Sesame Street. 

I’m obviously curious how Claude M’Barali, an African immigrant in Paris came to view and be influenced by an American western-science fiction TV show. I gather that “The Wild, Wild West” was indeed one of the top 30 most popular programs in the United States in the late 1960’s until it was unceremoniously cancelled in 1969 to appease the Nixon Administration’s campaign against television violence. It’s hard to tell if his inclusion of Loveless and West in “Nouveau Western” is an homage or part of a criticism, as much of the song is an overtly negative take on Hollywood’s influence outside of America. 

Propre comme un archiduc Oncle Sam me dupe / Hollywood nous berne Hollywood berne / Dans la vie de tous les jours comme dans les nouveaux westerns

Clean as an archduke, Uncle Sam is fooling me
Hollywood is fooling us, (Hollywood is fooling)
In everyday life as in the new westerns

Regardless of MC Solaar’s intent, I’m glad he led me down this “Wild, Wild West” hole and I hope you’ll join me down here!

PS: MC Solaar has been popular in France since the early 1990s, but it feels like the French are only recently realizing that the man is a national treasure. For a genteel intro to his music, it’s worth watching him here at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2022.