‘The best of rap… versus the worst of politics’: French rappers team up to make music critical of the far right

Twenty rappers have teamed up to create a video against the French far right, which won the first round of elections. Under the slogan “No to Pasaran”, a reference to the Spanish Republicans’ slogan against Franco’s fascism, the artists expressed their dissatisfaction with the rise of the National Union in the elections and called on voters to turn the tide in the second round.

“The best of rap… vs. the worst of politics” reads the description of the video, which was published on YouTube.

In a video lasting about ten minutes, rappers from different generations and regions of France break their silence. They unabashedly insult both the far right and the party’s candidate for prime minister, Jordan Bardella.

The song, released on Monday evening, has already garnered nearly half a million views.

“The original idea was to talk to young people who listen to rap. We told ourselves that we couldn’t sit back,” explained Tohami, one of the artists involved in the project.

“After Macron’s disastrous dissolution of the assembly, the sad realization that the National Union is leading among young people in the European elections, and their disastrous result in the first round of the legislative elections, DJ Kore and Ramdan Touhami have done the impossible by stepping up all their calls to mobilize young people against the fascists and avoid an apocalyptic second round,” it says.