Formed in 1989, it comprises Akhenaton (AKH; Philippe Fragione), Shurik'n (Geoffroy Mussard), Khéops (Éric Mazel), Imhotep (Pascal Perez) and Kephren (François Mendy).

[citation needed] Using a sample of a Stevie Wonder song, "Les tam-tam de l'Afrique" focuses on the "abduction of its inhabitants, the Middle Passage, and the plantation system in the Americas".

"[4] Indeed, this "pharaoism", as French rap music specialist Andre Previous calls it, represents an attempt to negotiate and maintain a cultural identity in the context of a social scene rife with racist and discriminatory ideologies.

Thus, by employing 'pharaoism' to hide these references to and elicitations of the Arab world, IAM successfully articulates its connections with the "Franco-Maghrebi"[6] cause and establishes an important social space for itself.

[7] In this way, the use of 'pharaoism' as a mystical and coded strategy for the injection of Arabic and Egyptian lyrics, ideas, and sentiments[citation needed] into the music is what makes it commercially viable.

[citation needed] Otherwise, if the music were any more outright in its references to Arabic origins, white French conservatives might identify it with Islamic Fundamentalism's grips over North African diasporatic communities living in France and try to censor it and impede the cause it stands for.

IAM have sampled an Inspectah Deck lyric from the Wu-Tang Clan song "C.R.E.A.M", which states "Life as a shorty shouldn't be so rough" in their 1998 single, "Petit frère".