I've been listening to a fair bit of French rap this week, and this track was one that stood head and shoulders above all the others.
It's an extraordinary piece of work from the rapper from Le Havre with a French mother and Algerian father.
With namechecks for Jean Moulin, Jean-Paul Sartre and discussion of the Algerian independence struggle at its most personal level, it's rap at its most articulate and intelligent, unafraid to confront big philosophical and political issues.
The track comes from the forthcoming album "Don't Panik", on Din records, and comes at the time Algeria marks its 50th anniversary, becoming independent in 1962.
Médine, has released three previous albums, Arabian Panther (2009), Jihad (2005) and 11 Septembre (2004), where he's eloquently worked around the issues of being a Muslim in France, and the social inequalities in society.
He also wrote an article for Time magazine ("How Much More French Can I Be?") calling for France to reject outdated labels that define French people by race, and how the gap between the banlieue and the rest of French society has to be bridged.
The article's still available to read online in English here >
More information about Médine here>
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