Protest Song

protest song

Album cover.

Tracklist (with Rap Genius links):

CONTEXT

Released in 2013, Protest Song is Médine’s fourth album. It was released five years after Arabian Panther, a significant amount of time considering that Médine’s album releases are usually quite consistent. He did release a few EPs and compilations in 2011 and 2012.

Background

This album goes in quite a different direction than Arabian Panther. First of all, it is important to note that the development of this album was accompanied by a period of self-doubt by Médine. The release date was pushed back several times, Médine even tried to change the title for a time. Médine released several videos on YouTube explaining the reasons why he took so long.

Médine’s new album is markedly less ‘resistant’ (and, one could say, violent) than Arabian Panther. This time, through the album title and some songs, he tried to recontextualize his work in the framework of general ‘Protest Songs’. He cites, among others, Bob Marley, U2 and Johnny Clegg as examples of artists who created ‘Protest Songs’.

Despite being still politically engaged, the songs on Médine’s new album mostly abandon his previous style of incorporating several literary and real-world references that require research on the part of the listener, and most of his songs are more accessible to the mainstream public. For these reasons, this album is my least favorite.

SELECTED SONG SUMMARIES

  • Blokkk identitaire: This song, featuring Youssoupha, a black rapper who is also very famous in France, is a satirical song that deals with communitarianism. Médine and Youssoupha play the role of an Arab and a Black person who spend most of the song insulting each other, using racial slurs and stereotypes. Towards the end of the song, the two realize that a feeling of pride for their ethnic identity should not be at the expense of other communities:

    « Rien ne sert de jouer au Beur ou au Blackos fier
    D’être plus identitaire que sur la blogosphère
    On revendique être gosse d’Afrique
    Mais qu’être ethnocentrique c’est être égocentrique
    Quand les vieilles victimes deviennent de jeunes auteurs
    Porteurs du gène d’Hitler sans être leur géniteur
    Quand le poison s’invite dans une blague lambda
    La mixité ressemble au mariage de Black Mamba
    Des traditions aussi snobinardes
    Que celles des apéros sauvages saucisson-pinard
    Faussement droit-de-l’hommistes et républicains
    Éradiquons le radical qui sommeille en chacun
    Et l’amour des siens, c’est pas la haine des autres
    – Médine & Youssoupha (Blokkk identitaire)

    Along with the song, Médine released a music video, made like a short film. The video is very graphic and contains disturbing images. This, along with the lyrical content, ensured that Médine created yet another controversy. The French magazine ‘Marianne’, of which Médine is extremely critical, wrote:

    Médine s’est lui aussi prêté à l’exercice de la haine raciale à double lecture dans sa chanson Blokkk identitaire, avec l’idée de « se renvoyer au visage les pires horreurs qu’on peut penser sur une autre communauté » afin, dit-il, toujours selon la même logique peu convaincante, d’« exacerber » le communautarisme par la violence. Et il admet aujourd’hui que si ses chansons sont mal-interprétées (volontairement ou non), c’est qu’il est d’autant plus nécessaire d’aborder le sujet du racisme…
    – Marianne 

    Accompanying the YouTube video, however, is the following description, which aims to remove all ambiguity:

    Le communautarisme poussé à son paroxysme ne peut qu’aboutir à la haine de son prochain, à la destruction d’une société et à l’ultra violence. Dans ce court métrage, la violence ne s’inscrit pas dans une esthétique démagogique visant à heurter ou à créer un pseudo buzz mercantile. La seule violence présente est celle d’une époque, d’un Etat, d’un climat qui crée, favorise et encourage tous les replis identitaires… Une société où la barbarie moyenâgeuse semble être un des moyens d’affirmation de son identité. À la manière de « American History X » ou « Old Boy », les scènes de violence sont crues et insoutenables, l’épisode de « la chasse à l’homme » n’est là que pour mettre en exergue la solidarité absolue et nécessaire des protagonistes. Tel est le propos, seule la solidarité pourra les (nous) sauver du chaos.
    – Médine (YouTube)

  • Enfant du Destin (Daoud): The only ‘storytelling’ song on this album, it is the latest song in the Enfant du Destin series. This song refers back to the first Enfant du Destin, David, and tells the story of the suicide bomber who ends up killing David.
    • Daoud is the Arabic version of the name David, so Médine, only through the name, tries to make a connection between the two people, and perhaps religions.
    • Despite touching on the Palestinian conflict from the perspective of an Arab, Médine focuses on the personal angle, and is also very careful to not associate the suicide bombing with a terrorist attack:

      « On me prêtera des intentions politiques
      Les médias du monde diront que je suis croyant fanatique
      Que j’ai agi programmé par un parti terroriste
      Et qu’aussi j’enterre ici tout espoir de paix possible
      J’aurais milles raisons de m’ceinturer le torse
      Ce qu’a enduré mon peuple dans un sanctuaire de la mort
      Ces blocus, mépris, obus, phosphore blanc occulte, bouscules,
      l’ONU qui fait semblant
      Interdiction d’accès à certaines professions
      Et sur ta carte d’identité, on y impose ta confession
      C’est donc ça la seule démocratie du Proche-Orient
      Agir en toute impunité sans qu’on lui reproche rien
      Mais ma vengeance n’est que personnelle »

    • The last line of the song is « Palestine Libre ». He therefore clearly states his position.

  • D’arobaz à zéro: The title of the song refers to the Dictionnaire des mots français d’origine arabe, by Salah Guemriche. ‘Arobase’ is the first word and ‘zéro’ is the last word in the dictionary.
    • The song has an objective to « cultive la fierté de soi ». Médine does this in two ways:
      • He mentions the fact that many words in French come from Arabic, and that French (and Western) culture have borrowed many elements from Arab culture.
      • He talks about the ‘Lycée Averroès’, a private Muslim high school in France that was ranked best French high school in the country (link) in 2012.
      • This song has a somewhat academic tone, making references to Frantz Fanon, Antoine Lavoisier, Charles Martel and the influence of Arab culture on Western Culture, so this one is perhaps my favorite song from the album.

  • Besoin d’évolution: The latest in the Besoin de… series, this one removes the R in ‘révolution’ to create ‘évolution’.
    • The song is closer in tone to the first one, more hopeful and uplifting.
    • Médine retools the name of the previous song, ‘Besoin de Révolution’, into ‘Besoin de rélovution’, therefore emphasizing the word ‘Love’.

AFTERMATH

Apart from the minor controversy surrounding the ‘Blokkk identitaire’ music video, the album was not particularly criticized by the media: it was, however, criticized by long-time listeners of Médine, some of whom were disappointed with his new emphasis on musicality at the expense of his academic and politically engaged tendencies.

In the YouTube video series linked above, Médine mentions that this was a time of personal difficulty, and how he struggled with how his music should mature as he himself matured. Ultimately, with the release of the Démineur EP, I think Médine decided that his favored style of rapping was that of provocation, controversy, and political engagement, and his newest EP is definitely entrenched in his earlier style of political engagement, while also having somewhat of a different form and focus (most notably, he has more or less abandoned his intertexuality with civil rights movements). In my opinion, this evolution has given rise to some of his best work, and so even though I was disappointed with this album I am happy with what it served as a condition to.

 Read next: Démineur EP