Freeze Corleone again prevented from performing.
The Loire-Atlantique prefecture banned this Monday a concert by the rapper scheduled for February 28 at the Zénith in Nantes, already postponed due to a previous ban, according to a press release.
“The musical productions of this artist are known for his anti-Semitic and hateful references against the Jewish community,” justifies the prefecture.
At the beginning of December, a first ban on his Nantes concert was validated by the administrative court.
The concert was postponed until February 28 pending a decision from the Council of State, contacted by the rapper's lawyer but which was unable to rule, the appeal having been filed a few hours before the performance.
“This concert on February 28, 2024 in Loire-Atlantique takes place in a geopolitical context that is still extremely tense following the terrorist attack launched by Hamas on October 7, 2023 in Israel and in a context of very high level terrorist threat,” writes the prefecture in its press release.
Targeted by an investigation for “apology of terrorism”
In mid-February, the courts validated the Rhône prefecture's ban on a Freeze Corleone concert in Lyon, the day after a similar decision in Lille.
In Paris, administrative justice allowed two dates to be held at the Zénith in November.
Aged 31, Freeze Corleone, pseudonym of Issa Lorenzo Diakhaté, is the target of a preliminary investigation by the Nice prosecutor's office for "apology of terrorism" for a song appearing to evoke the attack on the Promenade des Anglais in 2016.
Also read “An openly conspiratorial artist”: who is Freeze Corleone, the rapper who multiplies controversies?
In 2020, Freeze Corleone was already the subject of an investigation, closed without further action, for “provocation of racial hatred” after clips containing lyrics such as “I arrive determined like Adolf in the 30s” or “ every day RAF (nothing to worry about) the Shoah.”
Denouncing “unacceptable racist comments”, his label Universal Music announced the end of their collaboration.