| Loco Locass | |
| Background: | group_or_band |
| Origin: | Quebec, Canada |
| Genre: | Rap |
| Years Active: | –present |
| Label: | Audiogram |
| Current Members: | Biz (Sébastien Fréchette) Batlam (Sébastien Ricard) Chafiik (Mathieu Farhoud-Dionne) |
Loco Locass are a Canadian hip hop group from Quebec formed in 1995.[1] The group often defends the role of the French language, and champions Quebec sovereignty. Songs such as "ROC Rap" and "Résistance" highlight the band's political leanings, and their strong advocacy for Quebec to be an independent country. Their song "Le But" was previously used as the goal song of the Montreal Canadiens and was played after every goal the Canadiens scored at the Bell Centre until the start of the 2017-18 NHL Season. "Le But" was recently brought back as the Canadiens' victory song.
In 1999 the band adopted the name 'Locos Locass' and then changed it to 'Loco Locass', also adding new band member Chafiik (Mathieu Farhoud-Dionne). The band musicians besides the trio of Biz, Batlam and Chafiik are Jeanse, Djip, Lester G, VöV and Tchi Tchi Novo Solmol[2]
Loco Locass's self-image as a vehicle for promoting the sovereigntist option has played into existing social divisions. These divisions have played out on several occasions:
St-Jean Concert: on June 24, 2005, the group took part in a show marking the government-designated Quebec National Holiday organised by Les Cowboys Fringants at Montréal's Parc Jean-Drapeau. The ten-hour politicized show's $40 entry fee was controversial, as was its sponsorship by Coca-Cola and Gillette, companies some left-wing nationalists identified as "Anglo-Saxon imperialists", leading to charges that the show constituted elitist competition with a long-established event at Parc Maisonneuve.
Federal Funding: Loco Locass are not among the sovereigntist artists whose political stance leads them to boycott federal funding programmes. In particular, some of their recordings have received federal recording industry subsidies. Federalists have charged that this poses an integrity problem, since they accept funding from the very level of government whose rejection they seek to promote.
Federalists Leave Home: Biz was reported during the spring of 2006 as suggesting that those who do not support the sovereignty option should leave Quebec.https://web.archive.org/web/20070311135837/http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/editorial/story.html?id=554ea4c4-41d1-4f46-9d4d-24ab9b27b147 Some also accuse Biz's of taking part of the history of accusations of disloyalty by nationalists.
On 25 February 2010, Chafiik of Loco Locass signed, together with 500 other artists, a call to support the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israeli apartheid.[3]
On August 19, 2005, in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec, Loco Locass played five of their songs accompanied by a young string orchestra of musicians aged 12 to 17, an initiative of Camp Musical St-Alexandre director-conductor Mathieu Rivest. The five songs were La censure pour l'échafaud, La bataille des murailles, L'empire du pire en pire, Antiaméricanisme primaire and Libérez-nous des libéraux, to which music by Prokofiev, Berlioz, and Stravinsky was added. Partners included Télé-Québec, Vidéo Femmes and Audiogram,[4] and a documentary entitled Symphonie Locass was released in the winter of 2006.
Loco Locass won awards from: