Rapper faces jail for song dissing France

One of France’s most popular rappers will appear in court on Monday charged with offending public decency with a song in which he referred to France as a ’slut’ and vowed to ‘piss’ on Napoleon and Charles de Gaulle. Monsieur R, whose real name is Richard Makela, could face three years in prison or a EUR 75,000 fine after an MP from the ruling UMP party launched legal action against him over his album Politikment Incorrekt. When Daniel Mach, MP for Pyrénées-Orientales, heard the album last year, he proposed a law making it a criminal offence to insult the dignity of France and the French state. In November, when riots broke out in France’s run-down suburbs, another UMP deputy, Fran?ois Grosdidier, won the support of 152 MPs and 49 senators who demanded that parliament act against Makela’s lyrics. But by then Mach had taken a personal action against Makela for making and disseminating ‘violent and pornographic messages’ to which minors could get access. The case is the latest in a series of stand-offs between conservative MPs and rappers. In 2003, Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister and presidential hopeful, brought a criminal case against the rap band Sniper, saying their music was anti-semitic, racist and insulting. Makela, who was born in Belgium and came to France aged 14, said he did not target any particular group but rapped against ‘the system’. (The Guardian, May 29, 2006)

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