Rappers face rap for riots

2005-11-23 23:14

Paris - Seven French rap outfits could face legal action after a complaint lodged by about 200 parliamentarians on Wednesday, accusing them of helping to provoke the country's recent riots through their lyrics.

"Sexism, racism and anti-Semitism are no more acceptable in lyrics than in written or spoken words," said the deputy behind the initiative, Francois Grosdidier of the ruling centre-right UMP.

"This is one of the factors that led to the violence in the suburbs," he said, arguing that rap music "conditions" listeners into a violent frame of mind that could spur them on to action.

In a petition co-signed by 152 deputies and 49 senators, the deputy drew the attention of justice minister Pascal Clement to seven rap singers and bands whom he accused of inciting racism and hatred.

The complaint singled out the song, FranSSe by rap artist Monsieur R, whose lyrics describe France as a "bitch" to be "screwed until she drops".

Protesting about conditions

Its author, Monsieur R, whose real name is Richard Makela, is already facing a separate court case for "outrage to social decency" about the song, brought by another ruling-party deputy.

The complaint also targeted singers Smala, Fabe and Salif and the rap groups Lunatic, 113, and Ministere Amer.

French rap artists have been using hip-hop music as a medium to protest about conditions in France's tough suburbs since the early 1980s.

References to police harassment, drugs, inequality, violence and "a day of reckoning" for the injustices of life all litter their songs.

After the weeks of violence that broke out in poor, high-immigration French suburbs in late October and early November, their lyrics warning of violence and railing against discrimination have appeared eerily prophetic.

- AFP