A minority fringe of rap sometimes falls into conspiracy, as when Booba becomes one of the biggest vectors of Russian propaganda on French-speaking social networks.
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What is the connection between rapper Booba and the war in Ukraine? Conspiracy. The French rapper with a 20-year career, who has more than 5 million subscribers on Twitter alone, has embraced the cause of Vladimir Putin and has become a new figurehead of conspiracy on social networks, a dynamic already set in motion with the Covid crisis.
He is not the only one in this case, even if this tendency is marginal within rap: Keny Arkana, Rohff, they also showed an adherence to conspiracy theories through their music, just like Freeze Corleone who even was the subject of a denunciation by the Licra and an investigation, in 2020, for questionable references in several of these pieces, which had earned him at the time to be dropped by Universal.
Why are conspis references more present in rap than in other musical genres? Is it a story of codes, of style, or the expression of a real political current among these musicians? There are undoubtedly both, from certain artists who appropriate conspiratorial mythologies for the time of a song or a clip, to the identity fringe of rap, with rappers who assume their far-right message, such as White Kroc.
Conspiracy in rap is the 25th episode of Complorama, with Rudy Reichstadt and Tristant Mendès France.