La Rumeur: accused of inciting violence against the police and the media
Interview with French hip hop group La Rumeur

When it was fashionable for French hip hop groups to sign up for a major label La Rumeur went underground. But when fashion went underground, the six-member rap band turned to EMI to release its first album, "L'ombre sur la mesure" ("Shadow on the (music) measure"). Like the two EPs it had earlier released on the underground circuit, it is politically-charged and drenched in a denunciation of France's colonial repression that their parents fled. As a result of the articulate lyrics and uniquely jazzy rhythms, this group from the Paris outskirts helped to redefine the hip hop scene in France.... but faced crippling legal court cases as a consequence. Throughout much of 2004 they fought lawyers representing the Ministry of Interior and Skyrock radio who accused them of inciting violence against the police and the media, respectively.