‘I’d rather be accused of antisemitism than rape:’ French rapper returns with new single

The rapper’s lyrics include lines such as “I arrive determined like Adolf in the 1930s.”

By Ben Cohen, The Algemeiner

Freeze Corleone, the French rapper who exhorted his listeners to “F–k the Shoah” (Holocaust), released a new single this week which immediately drew fresh accusations of antisemitism.

The track — titled “Shavkat” in honor of the Kazakh MMA fighter Shavkat Rakhmonov — contains a dig at French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin’s legal battle over a charge of rape from a former colleague that was dismissed last year following a five-year investigation.

“Et je crache des flammes comme Arcanin/Je préfère être accusé d’antisémitisme que de viol comme Gérald Darmanin” (“And I spit flames like Arcanin/I’d rather be accused of antisemitism than rape like Gerald Darmanin”) the track declares.

The track is the first single to be released from Corleone’s forthcoming album, “Attack of the Clones,” set for release on Sept. 11 — the same date chosen for the release of his debut album in 2020 that sparked the first accusations of antisemitism against the rapper.

That album, “The Phantom Menace,” was replete with “antisemitism, conspiracy theories, and apologies for Hitler, the Third Reich and [Afghan Taliban commander] Mullah Omar,” according to LICRA, a prominent French NGO that campaigns against racism and antisemitism.

The rapper’s lyrics included appeals to “F–k the Shoah!” along with lines such as “I arrive determined like Adolf in the 1930s,” and “Every day I f–k Israel like I live in Gaza.”

Despite selling more than 15,000 copies and attracting 5.2 million listeners on the Spotify digital music platform within three days of its release, “The Phantom Menace” resulted in legal proceedings against Corleone — whose real name is Issa Lorenzo Diakhaté — as well a boycott of his music by Skyrock Radio, a French broadcaster, and his distributor, Universal Music.

Guillaume Narduzzi, a French music journalist, commented in a report on Corleone’s new album that it was an “understatement to say that his return to French rap was long overdue.”

“Very quickly, this new release has become the most commented subject on [social media],” Narduzzi wrote in the French outlet PBRK, adding that this was “proof of the enormous enthusiasm on the part of French rap fans.”

Darmanin responded to Corleone on Tuesday in an official statement that denounced the rapper as an “apologist for Nazism and antisemitism.”

“At my request, the Ministry of the Interior is studying legal remedies as quickly as possible to prosecute the author of these remarks,” Darmanin said, pointing out that he was also calling on “Facebook and Twitter not to spread this garbage.”