Rappers mobilise as Le Pen vote surges

[Nicholas]

French rapper Xiao-Venom Blackara, better known in his quartier as XV, is a busy man this weekend. He has two pressing tasks: organising his first major concert and mobilising his neighbours and friends for the presidential elections in two weeks. That the two events will take place within a few days of each other is no coincidence.

XV is not alone. With the hardline right-wing former Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy still leading the polls and, according to surveys published yesterday, strong and growing support for extreme right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, French rappers are taking centre stage in the increasingly bitter battle for the votes of the nation's wavering and uncertain electorate.

Yesterday's Liberation, the left-wing newspaper, was edited by Diams, a female rapper whose latest album, In My Bubble, has sold 700,000 copies and who at every concert calls on her fans to vote. 'I read all the manifestoes, but I'm not going to make an explicit choice because I don't want to influence people ... to incite people to vote is to discover the country,' Diams, 26, told the newspaper. '[However], if Sarko or Le Pen are elected I'm getting ready for it to kick off.'....................

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world...052403,00.html