Fathers, men and brothers

The third in my series of musical breaks from Paris, France, features L'Algerino, Nessbeal, Corneille and La Fouine.

Still from "Des peres, des hommes et des frères."

This is number three in this series where I mine my friends back in Paris’s playlists. I live in Brooklyn, NY, these days and Sean asked me to do a regular post about the music back home.

One of my favorites Corneille with “Des peres, des hommes et des frères” (fathers, men and brothers), featuring who else but La Fouine. (You’ll remember La Fouine also from last week. He just won best French artist at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2011 held in Belfast. (He was up against David Guetta, Martin Solveig, Soprano and Ben l’oncle Soul.) La Fouine has finally been crowned French artist of the year.

Last week I featured “force et honneur,” the first single of rapper Nessbeal’s new album “Sélection Naturelle” (out tomorrow). This week, I highlight the song “Soldat,” which includes the lyric:  “Capitalism in the suburbs killed us it’s getting worse and worse.”

Mister You and Colonel Reyel continue the black-Arab musical alliance (this time specifically Guadeloupe and Morocco) over playstation and an apartment filled with beautiful people.

Finally, L’Algerino, who is as his name suggests of Algerian descent. On “Avec le sourire,” off his new album C’est Correct” – it debuted November 14th.  Over a sweet rhythm, he calls out far right French politician Marine le Pen. Her party, the Front National, is obsessed with immigration, especially by people of African and Arab descent. The moment was started by her father, Jean-Marie, who started the party, fought in France’s very violent colonial war in Algeria.  Marine is running for president. In the song, L’Algerino sings “Oh Marine, we’ll have your skin” followed by a line appealing for French unity: “We will form one heart, one body, one flag / Message from France from below for France from above.” Now, the youth movement of the Front National is not amused of course.

Further Reading

Slow death by food

Illegal gold mining is poisoning Ghana’s soil and rivers, seeping into its crops and seafood, and turning the national food system into a long-term public health crisis.

A sick health system

The suspension of three doctors following the death of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s son has renewed scrutiny of a health-care system plagued by impunity, underfunding, and a mass exodus of medical professionals.

Afrobeats after Fela

Wizkid’s dispute with Seun Kuti and the release of his latest EP with Asake highlight the widening gap between Afrobeats’ commercial triumph and Fela Kuti’s political inheritance

Progress is exhausting

Pedro Pinho’s latest film follows a Portuguese engineer in Guinea-Bissau, exposing how empire survives through bureaucracy, intimacy, and the language of “development.”

The rubble of empire

Built by Italian Fascists in 1928, Mogadishu Cathedral was meant to symbolize “peaceful conquest.” Today its ruins force Somalis to confront the uneasy afterlife of colonial power and religious authority.

Atayese

Honored in Yorubaland as “one who repairs the world,” Jesse Jackson’s life bridged civil rights, pan-Africanism, empire, and contradiction—leaving behind a legacy as expansive as it was imperfect.

Bread or Messi?

Angola’s golden jubilee culminated in a multimillion-dollar match against Argentina. The price tag—and the secrecy around it—divided a nation already grappling with inequality.