Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

‘Too many Cohens:’ Spotify should remove French rapper, Wiesenthal Center says

The Simon Wiesenthal center called on Spotify to remove Freeze Corleone, a French rapper known for his antisemitic lyrics, from their platform in a statement released Friday.

In a letter sent by the Wiesenthal Center’s president, Shimon Samuels to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, Samuels argued that “Freeze Corleone’s malicious hatred can kill and is not ‘freedom of expression.’”

Corleone is one of the leading French language artists producing drill music, a genre of rap which began in the early 2010s on the South Side of Chicago, before quickly spreading to the U.K. and other locales where local influences created unique interpretations of the genre. Drill music has been closely associated with American gang culture and is defined by ominous beats and often violent and nihilistic lyrics.

“In rap, too many Cohens,” sings featured artist Osirus Jack in one of Corleone’s songs, before Corleone chimes in “I come Nazi like the BVB.”

Other antisemitic lyrics of his include, “Everything for the family, so my children can live as Jew landlords,” “Kill a life, fuck a Rothschild,” “ I don’t give a fuck for the Shoah,” and “we get the German girls like the SS,” among many others.

Corleone whose real name is Issa Lorenzo Diakhaté, was born in Les Lilas, a suburb just north of Paris, and spent some of his youth in Montreal, where his music acquired North American influences. Today however, he resides in Dakar, Senegal.

Through his lyrics, “Corleone is thereby poisoning young African Europeans against the Jewish community,” Samuels said in his letter to Ek.

Correction, Sept 29th. 5:37 p.m.: A previous version of this article stated that the line “too many Cohens” was sang by Corleone, when in fact it was sang by another artist featured on one of Corleone’s tracks.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.