On the one hand, provocations and accusations of anti-Semitism or homophobia. On the other, the commitment against racism or police violence. The rapper Médine, invited to the summer universities of ecologists and rebellious people next week, is emerging as a figure of left-wing activism.
Placed in the light by these invitations to debate in political forums, the rapper from Le Havre claimed in May “the right to make mistakes” and “contradiction” and recognized “wanderings”, during a public evening organized by Mediapart.
In question, in particular, his “quenelles”, anti-Semitic gesture of the polemicist Dieudonné, carried out in the past. “I regretted it, because waste pickers gave it another meaning,” pleaded the 40-year-old artist with athletic build and well-trimmed beard.
More recently, he described the Franco-Gambian essayist Rachel Khan, Jewish and granddaughter of a deportee, as “resKHANpée”.
After strong outrage in the ranks of the majority, the rapper apologized and assured that the dubious pun was not directed “to his family or to the victims of the tragedy of the Holocaust”.
And his fans recall that he described, in a piece released in 2008, anti-Semitism as “a cancer that must be fought, like Islamophobia”.
“Provocation is not only the prerogative of Medina, it is rather the prerogative of rap, but not only”, indicates to AFP Marie Sonnette-Manouguian, sociologist and specialist in political engagement in rap. .
“There is a long tradition of French political songs, we can make the link with songs by Brassens or Renaud, which have quite strong words towards France, the police or the State”.
But times and codes have changed and Medina recognizes this: “He can no longer afford today the type of provocations he used in the early 2010s,” she adds.
And to those who criticize the artist for having used homophobic terms, the deputy La France insoumise (LFI) for Seine-Maritime Alma Dufour recalls that he declared in 2013: “Obviously gay marriage is not compatible with Islam but as a French citizen I am for equality so they should have the right to marry without discrimination”.
The deputy, elected in the department of Medina, explains that she became “friends” with the latter after having met him during a picket in front of a refinery in Normandy in the spring.
“He is one of the rappers who pushes his social and political commitment the furthest,” she adds.
Last year, during the presidential campaign, Médine Zaouich, of his real name, supported Mélenchon.
“This kind of commitment is very useful to fight against abstention, especially among young people and working-class neighborhoods”, notes Alma Dufour.
Before the second round, Médine indicated that he would vote for Macron. “There are people with whom we can dialogue in the camp of Macron”, he explained at the time.
And to quote the mayor of his city Edouard Philippe who, even if he qualified him in 2017 as “slayer of republican secularism” recognized him to be “probably more complex than we say”.
The rapper says in an interview that he wants to fight against the “mechanisms of oppression” of different minorities according to an intersectional logic – which denounces the accumulation of discrimination linked to gender, origins, sexual orientation, social class or appearance. .
“He speaks radically, with left-wing values, which calls for a change in society for more social justice. This is a line he has held since the start of his career and which has become particularly politicized. , in the sense closer to social mobilizations, unions and political parties, over the last period”, notes Marie Sonnette-Manouguian.
And which is reflected in particular by these invitations to the summer universities of Europe Ecology-The Greens (EELV) in Le Havre, and of LFI.
Marine Tondelier, the patron saint of the environmental party, defended the “interesting journey” of the artist, but she also promised an “explanation of text” during her intervention with the Greens.
Nothing like this with the Insoumis: “I don’t think there is a need for an explanation of the text, just listen to it,” said MP Alma Dufour.
After her “big interview” with Mathilde Panot, the head of the LFI deputies, Medina will also perform on stage in front of the activists.
08/17/2023 09:07:16 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
