Jean-Marie Le Pen has long been a favorite target of the rap scene. Return to these punchlines which targeted the former leader of the far right.
Although he described rap as “a barbaric attack on poetry”, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died on Tuesday January 7 at the age of 96, was nevertheless a source of inspiration for many rappers. Over the last thirty years, many artists have worked to denounce its political positions and the rise of the extreme right in France.
According to data from the specialized site Rap Minerz, the name of the co-founder of the National Front dominated the references among other far-right figures in artists' lyrics at the beginning of the 2000s. Overview of the punchlines more impactful against Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Rise of the far right in the votes
• Hardcore – Ideal J (1998)
In 1995, Jean-Marie Le Pen managed to collect 15% of the votes in the presidential election. A score which particularly worries the group Ideal J, formed by Kery James, Jessy Money, Rocco, Teddy Corona, Selim du 9.4 and DJ Mehdi.
In their title Hardcoreimagined in 1998 to represent the hardcore movement of French rap, the group raps about its concern about the rise of the National Front in France.
“Hardcore, is the skyrocketing rise of the FN // Hardcore, are the extreme words of that bastard Le Pen,” Kery James rapped in 1998 on the title.
Four years earlier, the Suprême NTM group also denounced in its title White and black racism and the increasingly high scores of the extreme right. “Ten percent for Le Pen in the elections is a defeat,” Kool Shen rapped in this song.
• Hip-hop citizens – Princess Aniès (2002)
While the National Front's scores continued to climb, Jean-Marie Le Pen created a surprise on April 21, 2002 by qualifying for the second round of the presidential election. In response, millions of people are mobilizing in the streets, but also in music, to block the far right.
Between the two tours, a collective of 17 artists led by rapper Princess Aniès meets to record a song. Baptized Hip-hop citizensthis title denounces the rise of xenophobic ideas and highlights the danger of having a far-right candidate at the head of state.
“I don’t think anymore, now I’m sure that democracy isn’t Le Pen,” raps the artist Doudou Masta.
They also encourage the French to go to the polls for the second round: “In the second round, don't be stupid, get out your car, man is going to vote.”
In 2005, the artist Soprano also returned to this turning point in political history in his piece The Dove. “Victim of a malaise which put Le Pen in the first round,” he rapped.
• Cause and effect – Diam's (2004)
During the 2007 presidential election, many artists like the rapper Diam's mobilized to encourage the French not to reproduce the 2002 scenario at the polls.
If we know the famous title of Diam's, Marinededicated to the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen where she invites her listeners to “fuck the National Front”, the artist also quoted the co-founder of the party on her piece Cause and effect. A title in which Diam's portrays the French people she supports, defends and represents in the face of the rise of the far right. She also evokes the shock of April 21, 2002.
“There is a whole city that can no longer sleep peacefully / Since Jean-Marie and Marine made money in April,” she raps on this track.
The “detail of history”
• Screw the system – Sniper (2004)
Many rappers have denounced the denialist remarks of Jean-Marie Le Pen, made in 1987 on RTL. The co-founder of the FN is questioned about gas chambers, used by the Nazis to murder Jews in extermination camps. A method that he then describes as “a point of detail in the history of the Second World War.”
“If Auschwitz is just a detail, it’s because Le Pen is a dirty pig,” scolded Mac Tyer, from the group Sniper, in the piece Screw the system released in 2004.
• Impact with the devil – MC Solaar (2007)
Three years later, it is MC Solaar who refers to this phrase from Jean-Marie Le Pen in the song Impact with the deviltaken from his album Chapter 7. This title, which calls on young people to stand up against a vague threat, opens with an extract from Adolf Hitler's speech, followed by the voice of Jean-Marie Le Pen who declares: “I believe that this is a point detail…”
“I have the devil's mailbox, his triple W // He leads a double life, invades us like V // Tell him we're freaking out ap, tell him we're fit // On the starting line- blocks for impact with the devil,” MC Solaar then rapped.
• The future is a long past – Manau (1998)
This parallel between Adolf Hitler and Jean-Marie Le Pen is found in other rap texts. Already in 1998, Manau warned about the stuttering of history in the title The future is a long past:
“Is it all starting again? Have we lost our minds? // Because I saw the evil that slowly takes hold without any morality // Being on TV for him has become normal // Like every time, with a new name // After the name Hitler, I heard the name of the Front.”
In 2015, S-Pi recounts an adventure with a young girl from a family with far-right sympathies in the song Abdoulaye Le Pen: “His father was an FN version of Hitler / Whose ideology reminded me of Jean-Marie Le Pen.”
Legacy in the years 2010-2020
If rap was very committed and against politics at its beginnings in France in the 90s-2000s, the genre has gradually become depoliticized over the last twenty years, as Rap Minerz analyzes.
According to the specialized site which compiled the names of the far-right political figures most mentioned in French rap, that of Jean-Marie Le Pen, formerly among the most cited, has been in decline since the end of the 2010s.
In addition, the transformation of the National Front into the National Rally and the party's strategy of de-demonization has highlighted other leaders, such as Marine Le Pen, daughter of Jean-Marie, and Jordan Bardella, current president of the party. It is now on them that criticism of rappers is focused.
Nevertheless, the figure of Jean-Marie Le Pen reappears from time to time in the texts of the new generation. In 2010, in an old version of their title MarcoBigfllo & Oli recounted the arrival in paradise of a fallen pedestrian: “Up there, no racists, no oil, no enemies (…) No hatred, from Jean-Marie Le Pen.”
“I'm obscure, I only sleep with one eye like Jean-Marie Le Pen,” Dinos rapped again in 'Les Pleurs du mal' in 2018, in reference to the glass eye of the founder of the FN.
“I'm going to save mine before yours, big, otherwise, it's not worth it // But saving your own before the others, big, that's the Le Pen program”, says Vald the following year In Journal perso II.
In recent years, an opposite epiphenomenon has begun to emerge: that of rappers who claim to adhere to the values of the extreme right. Artists who essentially make a name for themselves on social networks and sometimes manage to attract the spotlight to themselves. Like Millésime K, 791,000 subscribers on TikTok, who made waves in spring 2023 with a series of controversial concerts. Or even Kroc Blanc who, in 2015, released a title tribute to Jean-Marie Le Pen, #JMLP.
Carla Loridan and Benjamin Pierret
