“This tour will also allow us to discover the basis of French rap,” confides Passi

Every day, a personality invites itself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Thursday June 13, 2024: Passi, member of the AMER Ministry The group is starting a tour this fall, with among other dates, October 4 in Reims, 11 in Paris, 18 in Nîmes and even 26 in Toulouse.

The rapper, actor, Passi is back with his group, Ministère AMER, around thirty years after the release of the first two albums, Why so much hatred And 95200 – the postal code of Sarcelles. The group comes from Val d’Oise where Passi grew up and over time, the AMER Ministry has always been a witness to what was happening in the cities, and above all a voice for others.

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of their second album, 95200the AMER Ministry is starting a tour this fall with a visit to La Cigale in Paris on October 11.

franceinfo: What made you want to come back, apart from the anniversary date?

Passi: Stomy Bugsy and I, each on our own, still do a lot of shows here and there. The last date together was for the anniversary of the first album. We had done an Olympia. A unique date because we’ve never really toured with Ministère AMER and now we’re happy to be back on the road. We are in a period where we perhaps need legacies, to tell stories to new generations. I think that this tour will also allow us to discover the basis of French rap.

The starting point is the acronym AMER. There are plenty of translations like: Action, Music and Rap, Agents of the Elegant and Radical Ministry or even Association of Criminals Children of Rap.

It’s part of rap. We take words, we twist them, we sample them. AMER Ministry, this is my first group, it’s a scream. We are 15 years old, we have an uncertain future and we look at the world, the situation in Africa, that of the neighborhoods, we look at equality and social problems and we say no, instead of writing about nonsense or just about love, we’ll talk about what’s going on downstairs. We’re going to ask questions of society, of the people around us, etc.

“AMER Ministry, basically, it is a cry of young people who wonder where their place is in the world.”

When rap arrived in France, after the United States, there was tagging, graffiti. You and Stomy Bugsy started like that, that’s where his stage name comes from. Back in the day, there was this must-see TV show hosted by Sidney, “HIPHOP”

I met Sidney a month or two ago at a concert and he is very happy with what has happened for Hip-Hop. He spoke to us about it every Sunday, on a major television channel, the leading channel in France. To date, several million albums have been sold and we no longer have broadcasts of this type on the major channels, which is not normal. When we meet him, we still have to give him his credentials!

I would like us to talk about the title that Charles Pasqua, Minister of the Interior at that time, tried to have banned. Brigitte cop’s wife has indeed left its mark. What does she represent for you on this journey?

Brigitte cop’s wife, it’s an irony. It’s a story of deception. Basically, she is the wife of a police officer who lives her double life. And we say that precisely to pique, to annoy a little. The AMER Ministry is also an ugly duckling. We like to titillate and disturb. And it is accepted because there are things on which we did not agree politically speaking. Today, at the level of racism, at the level of these stories of immigration, etc., we cannot say that it is very clear and very fair for the immigrant who wants to fit in, who wants to show his credentials or who wants to move forward.

Don’t you think that has changed?

We don’t put enough emphasis on education. Education is fundamental and we lose a lot. I see what is happening in the neighborhoods and it is becoming more and more difficult throughout France. We should all together, by mutual agreement, push the best teachers to go to the most difficult neighborhoods and support them, give them bonuses, etc. It’s my point of view. For the police too, particularly in terms of training. When you take a policeman from the south [de la France] and you throw him in 93 (Seine-Saint-Denis), he doesn’t have the codes to talk to young people. We cannot live in an anarchic world without police, even if we criticize them. It’s normal. I think it was a serious mistake to eliminate community policing.

“We must succeed in restoring love, living together. In France, we often see the glass half empty instead of the glass half full. Of course there are problems, but in other countries in the world, there are even more.”

Finally, what has changed the most between when you started at 15 and today, 35 years later?

Less innocence, because when you are better known, people expect you more, whereas at the time they didn’t care. We came, we did what we felt. The more you are known, the more you advance, the more people wait for you around the corner and the more you look for yourself. And then there’s age. We’re looking to do things a little stronger.

Wiser today?

Wiser ? Of course, necessarily, otherwise, my children, my nephews will tell me “Uncle!”, “Dad!“. So wiser on the outside, but inside, there is always the fire that burns, this fire of creation, this fire to denounce, to sing, to speak. There is always this fire that is there.

The AMER Ministry will be on tour, among other dates, on October 4 in Reims, on the 11th in Paris, on the 18th in Nîmes and on the 26th in Toulouse.