SWC Denounces BMG’s French Company for Signing Anti-Semitic and Holocaust Denier French Rapper Freeze Corleone

February 8, 2023

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is condemning Berlin-based BMG’s French company for signing Paris-based rapper Freeze Corleone despite knowing he was dropped by Universal Music Group because of Holocaust-denying and anti-Semitic lyrics.

According to a report from The New York Times, internal documents showed that BMG’s French division weighed the financial benefits of signing Corleone in 2021 against his history of hate speech – and ultimately decided to sign him so long as they could bury the lyrics and hide their involvement.

In previous songs, the rapper had questioned the Holocaust and compared himself to Adolf Hitler. “I arrive determined like Adolf in the 1930s,” he rapped in French in one 2018 song, and, in another, “Everything for the family, so that my children live like Jewish rentiers.”

“Anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial - no problem if this racist Anti-Semitic rapper could be monetized. Stench of hypocrisy in France—no one at BMG Berlin knew? We are all left to stare at the abyss of a culture that has no moral GPS,” stated Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action.

For further information, please email Michele Alkin, Director of Global Communications at malkin@wiesenthal.com or Shawn Rodgers at srodgers@wiesenthal.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is an international Jewish human rights organization numbering over 400.000 members. It holds consultative status at the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the OAS, and the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO).