"Who built this road?
Who built this city,
Does not live in it?
To those who complain about noise,
To those who condemn the odor,
I present myself."

This is a very common and logical complaint. Those who compalin are usually not the ones living in it, and those who create the districts don't have to experience what they've made. It's a sad fact that districts segregate and determine people's lives.

upon reading the article, it seems as if the french government is trying to take certain steps to deal with the issues of the riot. I thought it was interesting, they way in which vinnel was referring to the rioters as not belonging to one ethnicity/religion, and rather referring to them collectively as French youth. In relation to the first song, i think that this might be what thyouth want to be recognized as. They don't want to be otherized yet again within their country, rather they want their cause to be seen as a cause they are fighting for as the youth of france, not as the Muslim youth of france.

It's funny, I was actually strongly reminded of another Faulkner book As I LAy Dying when I read the lyrics and pace of Le Bruit de l'Odeur. The frustration of the arab- french youth and the difficulty of maintaining a non violent movemnet in such an un- equal and crazy making state sounded very fimilar. While reading the Hargreaves arcticle I felt almost as though I could have been reading an article about the watts riots. There were many simillarities especially in reference to the media portryal of the rioters as mindless savages instead of real people with legitament greivences. During the Watts Riots the major US papers, searching for a "reason" for the "hatred" seemed to concluded that black folks were just plain crazy , nevermind the lynching and poverty etc.Also there is a real question in socail justice movements that the article breifly addressed , a question that, interestingly enough, I also found asked in the French film Le Hien(sp?) Hate. At what point in any idealogical movement do you decide that non violent action is insufficent. That violent action is defensive and nessacary.So many social justice organizations have fallen apart over this question , including the one I worked for as a reasercher North West Coalition for Human Dignity. It seem to be the problem that gets everyone in the end. Anyway, this turned into quite the rant, but here agian is an example of how the expressive form of hip hop is used as both a political and personal outlet.

I think that these songs explain alot of why the riots are occuring today. After so many years of living in such a cruel enviornment it seems like it was only a matter of time before people began to riot and fight for better treatment. However, I thought the first song was really nonviolent it seemed to have some sort of a call to action without directly condoning violent acts. Even so all of the hostility that is there would still be a direct cause of the riots.

The first song is somewhat reminiscent of one of Hayan Charara’s poems that we read, bringing attention to the disparity in living conditions between communities residing in proximity to one another. I’d be interested to know what type of dialect characterizes the rappers’ use of French and what the implications are (rap culture? ghetto dialect? Stereotypes of immigrant language “mutations”?). I ask because of the recent controversies of nationalist sentiments promoting French—which begs the question: what type of spoken French is legitimate?

Also, I really appreciate the clever title of the song and the insertion of Chirac’s speech at the end. I’ve read similar statements he’s made that absolutely floored me. Ugh. So how would this rap be characterized? Who comprises the listening audience?

The two songs displayed here compliment the reading that we did. The reading goes into especially the facts and supportive data and numbers that reinforce the arguement that African and other immigrants are treated horribly in France. The songs go into a more personal revelation of the immigrant situation and speak with more emotion and hostility towards those prejudice against the immigrants. The second song speaks of what the article mentions, that the media and other sources distort the immigrants' image- like in the article where he talks about the brain damaged immigrant who killed the bus driver and was then used as a front man for anti-Algerian feelings. Chirac's speech creates hope for the immigrants, unless it is just a political formality and not a heartfelt statement. But, atleast attention is being brought to the immigration problems. When was Chirac's speech- and when was the article written? i wonder if anything has changed since the article and or Chirac's speech?

I thought these lyrics were quite interesting and complicated. As to other (possible) allusions to shakespeare, the lines in the sixth stanza from "I am a dreamer" to "there's the rub" reminded me of Hamlet's thoughts on suicide: "To sleep, perchance to dream -Ay, there's the rub, for in that sleep of death what dreams may come ... Must give us pause." I dont think I completely understood the song but a large theme seemed to be disjunction- in concepts such as social segregation, separated senses, race and reality, and mostly between the fact that the minorities living in the noisy and unclean ghettos created the up-scale districts, etc, and are what french society rests upon. The framework of the system is the battleground for these groups, forcing them to "fall to the ground" under fire. The Maghribi are not to blame for the "noise and odor" plight which Chirac attributes to them -i felt in a sense Zebda mocks his speech in these lines: noise, his words; odor, the bullshit coming from them. Also, I never quite finished it, but i thought the meaning of the title in "the sound and the fury" related to empty threats or powerlessness somehow. If someone could clarify this i would say thank you.
-sami

It is certainly now no suprise that the riot happened in Paris. After all the years of intolerable discrimination and cruelty faced by their immigrant worker parents, this was, apparently, the fastest way to gain the country's (and the World's) attention. The fact that the French 'colonized' Algeria, relied on them to fight during WWII, then to help in the reconstruction process but then to treat them like "scum of the earth" is despicable.
That aside, Prime Minister De Villepin's statement to the French people to end racism is not a feasible solution to the problem. First, they should not be considered "unassimilable" because they decide to hold onto their culture. Civil right laws should be set in place thereby making it punishable to treat these fine people as underclassed citizens. If 2/3 of the polled populace could boldly say they could die for France, that is the least they deserve.
By the way, great lyrics. It really details the plight of the Maghribi workers. Question: are they still living in such conditions as written in the book?

It’s one of my favorite books, so I’m happy to re-visit it. When I first read through these song lyrics, I was actually reminded of the Quentin section of Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. Quentin, the suicidal Compton, often comments on scents, lost innocence, death, failure. His section is also the most chaotic. Punctuation disappears and flashbacks pop in and out of the narrative. On another note, I felt like the song really captured the Maghrebian (is that the correct word?) mood of the articles. As it is, the people of the banlieues suffer from animosity and prejudice. They are sick, they are tired, they crave equality. This emotion is reflected in the song’s pained, somewhat chaotic lyrics. And that sickness, that fatigue also comes through in Quentin’s section. He too is tired of responsibility, tired of guilt, and frankly, sick of life.

oh, and as a side note, “The sound and the fury” is actually from Macbeth.

--Sam

Another song for Thursday:

{Refrain: x2} (Black Renegat) One is profiled, guilty each time, thrown
to the side, booked or picked in the line-up. Supposed young
person and on the wrong path. Eh, give 'em the law.

(Aketo) Yeah, I have the look, typically ghetto.
One will not spit in soup, they cringe at our lean. Our heads are sour because
from abroad one is suspicious. It is this mentality of dead loss who in the
country prevails. Very often, I felt in the glance of people Of
mistrust in my regard, brushed aside and it pisses me off.
With that, the paranoia invades you with what at the bottom of you
will lead that to sleep after that. You become unsociable, all the
time you feel taken pure target. You've had enough of being suspected.
Impossible, to found a dialogue to add some more, the media
profile us, dirty us and screw our health. One always shows the bad
sides, In films it is deceived for what one makes us pass, I am
médusé! Don't push me! I am not a purse snatcher.
Jersey, sneakers, cap but in the right path.

{Refrain, x2}

(Black Renegat) Look, it's serious, they judge us by our
appearance. For them ghetto kids rhyme only with delinquency.
All that for a color, an origin which does not reflect their France,
That makes me flip when I think of it. Now to know what pushes them
them to put all to us in the same bag? Why when I cross an old woman
she clutches to her bag? Why when I seek a job see the doors
being closed? Why one treats me like a robber though I did't still
steal anything? Is it my tennis shoes that do that? I don't
believe it. Is this my head which does not pass? I don't know. There
many questions which I cannot answer. But I will not remain there
stagnating. They don't count. (Aketo) Fuck a bunch of prejudices. (Black Renegat) I advance, I do not move back.
(Aketo) Me, there's no one but God who can judge me. (Black Renegat) I don't give a fuck if they like me. (Aketo) Or that they feel disturbed,
here is also my home and take my word, I am not close to moving.

{with the Refrain, x2}

(Tunisiano: in Maghrebi Arabic and no transcription)...

{with the Refrain, AD lib}