French rapper Freeze Corleone in the video for his single Shavkat. Photo: Screenshot

Two concerts in Paris by a French rapper who has been investigated for promoting Holocaust denial and accused of spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories have been banned by the authorities in the French capital.

Rapper Freeze Corleone had been due to perform at Paris’ Zenith venue on Friday and Saturday nights. However, in an announcement on Tuesday, the Paris Police Prefect said the concerts would not go ahead because of the “risk of serious disturbances of public order.”

The police statement noted that many of Corleone’s tracks encourage belief in antisemitic conspiracy theories as well as hostility towards Jews. The statement cited a specific line from Corleone’s song “Shavkat” in which he declared, in a reference to discredited allegations against the current French interior minister, “I’d rather be accused of antisemitism than rape like Gerald Darmanin.”

Observing that the “scheduled concerts take place in a particularly tense geopolitical context,” the statement deemed that the shows would not be conducive to public order given that several angry pro-Hamas demonstrations have taken place in France amid an associated rise in antisemitism, with more than 1,700 incidents targeting Jews recorded since the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel.

The statement also expressed concern that antisemitic invective would be heard at the concerts themselves, potentially triggering violent attacks on the Jewish community and on the police.

Corleone’s lyrics include appeals to “F—k the Shoah!” along with lines such as “I arrive determined like Adolf in the 1930s,” and “Every day I f—k Israel like I live in Gaza.”

Despite selling more than 15,000 copies and attracting 5.2 million listeners on the Spotify digital music platform within three days of its release, the content of his last album, “The Phantom Menace,” resulted in legal proceedings against Corleone — whose real name is Issa Lorenzo Diakhaté — as well a boycott of his music by Skyrock Radio, a French broadcaster, and his distributor, Universal Music.