Morsay

Morsay (born Mohamed Mehadji) is a Franco-Algerian rapper who grew up in the city of Sevran, in the kazirna and zghara - a suburb with tayzone and chinwi in notredamme. With Zehef, he launched himself in rap and created the collective Truand 2 La Galère.
Music and controversy
After a first solo record, Morsay joined up with Zehef again for Cli-Cli Notre Plaque Tournante, self-produced by the duo in 2009. Cli-Cli is a nickname for the Clignancourt area of Paris where Morsay is based. It was with a new release titled Le Son du Ter-Ter that Morsay created controversy as a result of the uncompromising stance of the song ‘J’ai 40 meufs’ (roughly: ‘I’ve 40 girlfriends’) with lyrics that were judged ‘intolerable’ by the French Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand. ‘What the rapper Morsay says in his video, in particular against the security forces of our country, is intolerable’, Mitterrand’s statement read (a communiqué of 19/10/2009). The Minister condemned the incitement to hatred and violence he perceived in the lyrics. Like earlier artists La Rumeur and OrelSan, Morsay was seen as the latest focus for scandal in French rap, benefiting from a sudden notoriety made possible by the internet.
Morsay’s profile grew once more as an online community known as the ‘noelistes’ - a group of young members of the website jeuxvideo.com whose avatar consisted of a head with a Santa hat on it - began to post video responses to his clips. Some of these responses featured ‘as much homophobia and insults’ as Morsay’s original videos, as the website Rue 89 has noted.
In 2012 Morsay made headlines as a result of two attention-grabbing moves. First, in a series of videos, he declared his intention to run for President of France - in videos which drew an enormous viewership on sites such as YouTube. His proposals included closing prisons and the legalisation of brothels.
Around the same time, Morsay joined with writer Mickael Korvin in the latter’s campaign for a seat in the Académie Française. This campaign began with a video filmed in the Les Puces area of Saint-Ouen, northern Paris. The video, an attack on fellow nominee to the Académie Erik Orsenna, is notable for Morsay’s threat to sexually assault the sexagenarian grammarian. Later videos featured Korvin and Morsay in balaclavas, calling themselves the ‘French Language Liberation Front’, and consisted of rap-style threats against another nominee to the Académie, Patrick Poivre d’Arvor and French novelist Fréderic Beigbeider. Korvin and Morsay’s activities were heavily covered by notable French cultural newspapers and magazines such as Le Nouvel Obs, Libération, L'Express and Les Inrocks.
In January 2012 it was announced that Morsay’s feature film, La Vengeance, which was due to be released, had not been allowed into cinemas; Morsay declared this was as a result of the Minister for Culture and Marine Le Pen’s Front National blocking the film.
Works
Albums
* Cli-Cli Notre Plaque Tournante (2009)
*Le Son du Ter-Ter (2010)
Filmography
*La Vengeance (2012)

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