Lhe incidents multiplied at the end of February around renowned rappers. How can we punish them for their illegal words without penalizing a musical genre popular with young people? Two cases reveal the dilemma. On February 25, at the Accor Arena in Paris, American rapper Kanye West can shout (in playback and in English) these words to thousands of fans: “How can I be anti-Semitic? Last night I fucked a Jewish slut! »
On February 26, the French Freeze Corleone was banned from performing in Nantes, after Lyon and Lille. The reason, given by the courts or the prefecture to ban the event planned for the 28th, is that the 31-year-old rapper has been singing anti-Semitic words since 2020: “I arrive determined like Adolf in the 1930s” ; “We arrive in Germans like SS”. He is also the subject of an investigation by the Nice prosecutor’s office for advocating terrorism in the piece Haalandwhich he sings with the rapper Luciano – some see it as an ambiguous reference to the 86 deaths during the attack on the Promenade des Anglais, in Nice, on July 14, 2016.
Why allow Kanye West to go on stage, and not Freeze Corleone? Especially since one point separates them. The American, who now calls himself Ye, has caused scandal for five years, on stage or in town: he is a fan of Hitler, sees abortion as genocide or thinks that slaves chose to be one. Freeze Corleone is only blamed for his songs – otherwise, he is silent. His texts, in addition to anti-Semitism, have an esoteric side and evoke conspiracy theories (Illuminati or pharmaceutical industry dominating the world).
Some, in the name of creative freedom, call for sanctioning comments in the media, but not those in works. This is the opinion of Benjamine Weill, author of Who benefits from the dirty? Sexism, racism and capitalism in French rap (Payot, 2023), which also invokes the second degree and the “rough, historical, assertive vulgarity” rap. In 2016, justice was moving in this direction. The Versailles Court of Appeal acquitted the rapper Orelsan, who, on the album Lost in advance (2009), declaimed: “Girls are whores”, “Shut up or you’ll get married ». The judge considered that “the field of artistic creation, because it is the fruit of the imagination of the creator, is subject to a reinforced regime of freedom”.
Can you be a feminist and like rap?
Freeze Corleone could benefit from this case law. Except that the climate has changed since the #metoo revolution. Invoking the “imaginary” is less audible, especially since the words of scandal are often received at face value by fans.s. These are the words, judged “unacceptable”which prompted recording giant Universal Music to break up with Freeze Corleone.
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