‘Too many Cohens:’ Spotify should remove French rapper, Wiesenthal Center says
Freeze Corleone Image by youtube
By David Ian Klein September 29, 2020
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.
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