Loco Locass

Loco Locass

The group with a member of the Réseau de Résistance du Québécois
Background information
Origin Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Genres Rap
Years active 1995–present
Labels Audiogram
Website locolocass.net
Members Biz (Stéphane Frechette)
Batlam (Sebastien Ricard)
Chafiik (Mathieu Farhoud-Dionne)

Loco Locass are a Canadian hip hop group from Québec formed in 1995.[1] The group often defends the role of the French language, and champions Quebec sovereignty. Songs such as "ROC Rap" and "Résistance" highlight the band's political leanings, and their strong advocation for Quebec to be an independent country.

Beginnings

In 1999 the band again changed its name, first to 'Locos Locass' and then to 'Loco Locass', also adding new band member Chafiik (Mathieu Farhoud-Dionne).[1]

The band musicians besides the trio of Biz, Batlam and Chafiik are Jeanse, Djip, Lester G, VöV and Tchi Tchi Novo Solmol[2]

Politics

On 25 February 2010, Chafiik of Loco Locass has signed, together with 500 artists, the call to support the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israeli apartheid.[3]

Student Funding

In the winter of 2005, Loco Locass supported the political arm of the Quebec student movement during a major student strike, protesting against the Quebec Liberal government of the day's conversion of $103m in bursary funding to loans. Critics, however, charged that the group's song Casse du 24 supported what they felt to be police repression of students.

Sovereignty

Particularly given the importance of the "national question" in Quebec culture and politics, it is unsurprising that Loco Locass's self-image as a vehicle for promoting the sovereigntist option has played into existing social divisions. These divisions have played out on several occasions:

St-Jean Concert: on June 24, 2005, the group took part in a show marking the government-designated Quebec National Holiday organised by Les Cowboys Fringants at Montreal's Parc Jean-Drapeau. The ten-hour politicized show's $40 entry fee was controversial, as was its sponsorship by Coca-Cola and Gillette, companies some left-wing nationalists identified as "Anglo-Saxon imperialists", leading to charges that the show constituted elitist competition with a long-established event at Parc Maisonneuve.

Federal Funding: Loco Locass are not among the sovereigntist artists whose political stance leads them to boycott federal funding programmes. In particular, some of their recordings have received federal recording industry subsidies. Federalists have charged that this poses an integrity problem, since they accept funding from the very level of government whose rejection they seek to promote.


Federalists Leave Home: Biz was reported during the spring of 2006 as suggesting that those who do not support the sovereignty option should leave Quebec. Some also accuse Biz's of taking part of the history of accusations of disloyalty by nationalists.

Documentaries

On August 19, 2005, in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec, Loco Locass played five of their songs accompanied by a young string orchestra of musicians aged 12 to 17, an initiative of Camp Musical St-Alexandre director-conductor Mathieu Rivest. The five songs were La censure pour l'échafaud, La bataille des murailles, L'empire du pire en pire, Antiaméricanisme primaire and Libérez-nous des libéraux, to which music by Prokofiev, Berlioz, and Stravinsky was added. Partners included Télé-Québec, Vidéo Femmes and Audiogram,[4] and a documentary entitled Symphonie Locass was released in the winter of 2006.

Awards

Loco Locass have won awards from:

Discography

Other contributions

Videos

References

External links