Even after the rise of works which seem to ‘write to right’ images of France as a sort of El Dorado studied in the previous chapter, these images nevertheless continued to flourish in francophone literary and musical works throughout the early twenty-first century. In fact, an African music movement known as coupé-décalé, was born in 2002 out of this precise image. Coupé-décaléis curious as an African musical movement for two principal reasons: first, it began in Paris rather than in Africa; and second, its first real group, known as the ‘Jet Set’—a play on words referring to both the number of members (seven), and their opulent lifestyle—had no musical training or experience. Rather, this group, according to one of its members known as Lino Versace, was known in Parisian African circles for their opulent weekend outings, including their designer clothing, cigars, champagne, and convertibles. When, in 2002, a violent civil war broke out in Côte d'Ivoire, African music producer David Monsoh approached the group to ask if they would consider creating a music movement to send messages of hope to the war-torn nation; though all but Douk Saga (self-proclaimed ‘President’ of coupé-décalé) initially declined Monsoh's invitation, Saga quickly convinced the rest of the Jet Set to join him in the studio.

Coupé-décalébegan as a means of spreading positive messages to a war-torn Côte d'Ivoire, but the conflict also played a large role in the movement's widespread success. During the civil war, government officials instituted a curfew, and Ivorians preferred to spend their curfew hours in bars (known as maquis) rather than remain isolated at home. The images of opulence transmitted through coupé-décalémusic videos contrasted greatly with the chaos and violence Ivorians experienced in their everyday life and, as Dominic Kohlhagen concluded, cultivated a mythical notion of ‘ailleurs’ (elsewhere)—often associated with images of France—that allowed Ivorians to escape their daily realities, even if for a short while.

Yet, like the migritudeworks (primarily Alain Mabanckou's Bleu-Blanc-Rouge) that had contested similar images sapeurshad put forth equating life in France with economic success, other Ivorian musicians, particularly the zouglougroup Magic System, took issue with the images coupé-décalétransmitted of France.