July 01, 2003

TIME BOMB

Two things leap out from this report. One is the phrase “leading French rock music station”. The other is the identity of the company financing anti-Semitic frog splodey-rap:

Tune in to the leading French rock music station, Skyrock, and you probably won’t have to wait long to hear a track from the album “Carved in the Rock.”

The album, by the rap group Sniper, was released at the end of May and has been ranked as high as number three in the official sales charts compiled by France’s National Union of Recording Publishers.

Those figures worry some French Jews, since the album contains a song called “Stone Thrower,” dedicated to Palestinian youth fighting Israel in the intifada.

Despite the attempt to come across as edgy, “Carved in the Rock” was produced under France’s East-West label, which is owned by Warner Music, an arm of the AOL Time Warner media conglomerate.

Posted by Tim Blair at July 1, 2003 08:15 PM
Comments

Oh my !
Offensive lyrics in a rap album ! Lyrics that may have a bad influence with young people ! I mean, can't they get a proper job, or something ?

Posted by: philippe at July 2, 2003 at 12:16 AM

Doesn't surprise me - I'm just surprised they're not funding the stupidfada directly. (or are they?)

Posted by: Barbara Skolaut at July 2, 2003 at 12:24 AM

BTW, here are the Lyrics, if somebody is interested. I don't have time to try a translation. I think, though the spelling is "creative", it's understandable with a fair knowledge of french. I'll just say it sound as balanced as possible, coming from young muslims rappers... And that the JTA article is fair about it.

Posted by: philippe at July 2, 2003 at 12:53 AM

I would much rather that media businesses like Time Warner simply put out whatever they think is going to sell, as opposed to setting themselves up as some sort of cultural custodians.

Let the market decide.

Posted by: Mork at July 3, 2003 at 10:15 AM