There are about twenty rappers, from all regions of France, speaking out this Monday, July 1st. With “No Pasaran” (“They will not pass” in Spanish), posted online at 11:45 p.m., Akhenaton, Fianso, Zola, Soso Maness, Seth Gueko and Alkpote took up the pen under the impetus of DJ Kore to engage against the RN, the day after the first round of the early legislative elections.
If the title refers to the slogan chanted by the Spanish against Franco’s dictatorship in the 1930s, such a choral song, shared with rappers from multiple backgrounds, is above all inspired by another position that has become legendary.
“I participated in this song and it’s very important to me, because I grew up in the heritage of a very sharp, committed French rap that inspired me a lot,” Fianso tells us, the first of the twenty artists to express himself in the title. There was already (in 1997) a song called 11 minutes 30 against racist lawsa fundamental song for me that helped me understand both racism in society and how to defend oneself against it. Culture has its say and has a vocation to express itself on this type of subject. I am from the generation where rap is not dissociated from the message.
And, for once, if many artists have been reluctant to take a stand against the extreme right since the dissolution was announced, apart from Soprano in Le Parisien-Aujourd’hui en France, this time, the atmosphere is boiling. Throughout the lyrics, the message is clear, straightforward. From the first notes, Sofiane Zermani (Fianso), launches: “Finger in the air for the ciste-ra/CNews in the blind spot/Shakes and tremors/Fuck the gathering”. Before adding “Jordan, you’re dead, Jordan you’re dead”.
“It’s a fight against the fascists, the idea is not to hug them,” contextualizes Ramdane Touhami, who produced the title. When we say Jordan, you’re dead, Jordan, you’re deadit is a reference to the moment when Cédric Doumbé, the MMA champion won his match and the whole stadium, including Mbappé, chanted Jordan, you are dead. If we don’t have the reference, we could believe that we are threatening Jordan Bardella, but we can justify ourselves. The goal was to play with the limits and make references.
“It’s going to be a hit, a real carnage”
This song, which calls on young people to vote in the second round of the legislative elections, features famous rappers such as Akhenaton, Soso Maness, Seth Gueko, Mac Tyer, Zola, Alkpote. Kerchak, ISK, Pit Baccardi, Uzi, Ashe 22, RK, Cokein, Nahir, Relo, Decimo, Zed, Costa and Demi-Portion are also part of the collaboration, which brought together around twenty rappers.
“Just after the European elections, with DJ Kore, we said to ourselves that we were not going to stay like this when the other (President Emmanuel Macron) dissolved, Ramdane Touhami tells us. Kore knows all the rappers, from all generations, and the idea was to bring them together. Two or three hours after our request, some were already in the studio.”
For a week, the artists parade in the same booth to record in secret in the center of Paris. “Some also sent us tracks from elsewhere, Akhenaton, from Marseille, or Pit Bacardi, who hadn’t rapped for 20 years and who was on a family trip,” confides Ramdane Touhami. DJ Kore then did the work of fitting everything together. And, in the end, it was going to be a hit, a real carnage.”
“A fairly direct political piece”
Of the 20 rappers, each wrote his own lyrics “with his own flow” and is therefore responsible for his own prose, always very free. An important clarification, because some lyrics are particularly virulent and provocative against the National Rally and its leaders.
Zola raps: “I propose an octagon to Bardella/They want to close the borders/But the dope will come up from Marbella anyway/So yeah that’s why I fuck them/So yeah that’s why I get paid/Every day fuck the RN/You already know which one it is.”
Kerchark dares: “I don’t follow politicians/like I don’t really do Mandela/But all I know is that we don’t vote for Marine/And fuck Bardella’s mother.” Sometimes hardcore rap that recalls the early lyrics of Kery James or Rockin’Squat, two references also mentioned in the ten-minute long title by Marseille’s Soso Maness.
And who adds: “I rap for all those who are forgotten/In the villages, the countryside/Either you love her or you leave her/That’s often what I’ve been told/You can ask my ex/Today who is the saddest.”
Ever more trashy, Alkpote, known for repeating the word “whore” at every turn (in his titles and even in interviews), used his favorite word, once again. “Marine and Marion the whores/A blow of the stick on these female dogs in heat/We continue the fight/Soon we will celebrate their fall.”
“In the world of rock or punk, when they attacked Margaret Thatcher, it was not gentle. We are in the same vein, replies Ramdane Touhami. It is a fairly direct political piece.”
“We’re here to stop kids thinking Jordan Bardella is a cool guy”
Behind this song, what do its initiators expect? “We are here so that kids stop thinking that Jordan Bardella is a cool guy. And we are here to tell them that in rap, we don’t like him, now, they have the information. But we expect a counterattack from the fascists who are very good at communication. Yesterday, when Kerchak posted that he was going to do this song, he lost thousands of followers on his social networks. And he had a sublime reaction, he wrote the rats are leaving the ship. » And Sofiane Zermani concludes by quoting Lino d’Arsenik: “Who claims to do rap without taking a position?”
The funds generated by the listening will be donated to the Abbé Pierre Foundation.
