Thirty years of RIM’K. If you did not grow up in France or in the French-speaking world, that number requires context. RIM’K is not just a rapper. He is a foundational figure of French rap, part of the group 113 that shaped an entire generation of listeners in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His 30th anniversary concert at the Adidas Arena was not just a show. It was a reunion of something.
The crowd at this concert was unlike any other I have attended. People in their forties who had been listening since the beginning, standing next to teenagers who discovered RIM’K through their parents or through social media algorithms. The intergenerational dimension was visible everywhere and it gave the evening a particular warmth.
The guest list was significant. Ninho appeared and the crowd responded with the kind of noise that makes the floor vibrate. SDM followed. And then the moment the old school contingent had been waiting for: the partial reunion of 113, with AP and Mokobbe joining RIM’K on stage. For anyone who knows what 113 meant to French rap, this was an emotional moment delivered with the weight it deserved.
I went into the pit and stayed there for most of the show. The energy in the fosse was dense and physical, the way French rap concerts tend to be. There was nothing aggressive about it, just the collective pressure of 20,000 people moving together.
My rating is 7 out of 10. The energy and the guest lineup were exceptional. My honest critique is that the stage production could have been more ambitious visually. For a 30-year anniversary, the screens and lighting felt slightly standard. The music carried the night, which says everything about the catalogue, but more visual ambition would have elevated the experience.
