The “representation of the show given by the rapper Freeze Corleone, scheduled for March 18, 2023, is prohibited on the territory of the City of Rennes. “With these words, written in a decree, the capital of Ille-et-Vilaine prohibits the singer from performing at Liberté, for the Boomin Fest evening, alongside five other scheduled artists.
For several years, this 32-year-old singer, originally from Lilas (Seine-Saint-Denis) has been regularly questioned for the violent remarks he makes in some of his songs. These are “real provocations and incitement to hatred, even violence, illegal remarks calling into question republican values and national cohesion”, can we read in the decree of the Rennes municipality, quoted by Ouest-France.
It was the local section of Crif (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (Crif) which “recently” questioned the prefect of Ille-et-Vilaine on “the racial hatred conveyed by the comments indicated and by requesting the ban of the show”. Rennes also stresses the importance of calming “already strong tensions between different extreme political groups present in Rennes, who physically clashed a few months ago”.
“RAF of the Holocaust”
In extracts compiled by the Licra (International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism), the rapper declares among other things: “I arrive determined like Adolf in the 1930s”, “every day RAF [rien à foutre, NDLR] the Holocaust” or even “like Swiss bankers, everything for the family so that my children live like Jewish pensioners”.
A rising figure in French rap, Freeze Corleone – Issa Lorenzo Diakhaté – was born in 1992 and made a name for himself with his collective, the 667 – nicknamed the League of Shadows – which brings together rappers from the Paris and Lyon regions and from Dakar (Senegal). ). His first album, released in 2020 and entitled “LMF” (“The Phantom Menace”), is hailed by many French fans. And has had some success: the album already had 5.2 million plays 24 hours after its release on the Spotify streaming platform.