BXII
« Que la Salade » (2023)
(vegan rap AF)
The BXII quintet brings exactly what was missing into militant rap in France. A good dose of humor, irony and second degree, all impeccably packaged within pretty visuals. A careful presentation that does not detract from the effectiveness of the message… Vegans stick out their chests, hunters in recovery position!
| By Polka B. – Translation by NinoFutur
Since you are wondering, BXII refers to the famous B12 vitamin, for which humans must supplement either through the consumption of animal products themselves, or through dietary supplements for vegans.
BXII is also the first French rap group to be explicitly formed around anti-speciesism. The collective’s lyrics deals with both hunting and breeding, as well as nutrients and deficiencies, as well as the convergence of struggles.
In BXII we’ll find Djamhellvice (rapper also active in the HxC scene, and beatmaker in his spare time under the nickname Bolt Cut), L’1consolable (rapper who also worked in parkour), Res Turner (rapper known to the general public for his performances at End of the Weak), and indescribable Skalpel.
We’re putting together a special one for this marathoner (not to say old-timer) of rap, committed since his beginnings in 1997 with K-Bine. The guy is still just as hot, and we feel particularly boosted to be part of a group dynamic again!
Graffiti and graphic artist Sly2 completes the line-up. Not only a passing by vegan (an essential quality to join the crew) he is also responsible for the artwork, the logo and all the BXII photos. And frankly, hats off to the artistic direction, the antithesis of the “hippie fantasy” imagery unfairly sticking to animal cause militants. With their hoods on, as if prepared for the robbery of a grocery store at night between the vegetable stalls, these so-called “Extremists” get to the heart of the matter on the eponymous track, the first clipped excerpt from the Que la Salade (« Salads only » : ED)
We don’t even know how to start,
(L’1consolable)
seeing how these carnists compete with lies as we know,
but remember that deep down it is the animals who are offended,
“Nature all for Man”
Sounds like “France for the French”
This is where the dynamics of BXII works the most. Around simple and impactful lyrics, which allow us to question our relationship to food, the environment, and the logic of our value systems.
All served on instrumentals designed for kicking, like “Hordearii”, the second clipped single from the project. Obviously, the title seems designed to burn any stages!
Let us allow ourselves a little (sympathetic) criticism: like good soldiers of boom-bap, the rappers of BXII continue to plow the furrow of 90s rap, without much evolution or taking any musical aesthetic risks.
The fact remains: it is better to have a good baguette, well baked in good bakeries, than a risky attempt with a risky flour! And I see you coming! We are talking here about a vegan ketogenic country baguette, gluten-free, sugar-free and with a low glycemic index.
No more jokes: well done BXII, and long life to you. We look forward to the next projects. Until then, we leave you with a short text from the group, which again will have the merit of making us think.
To my friends who think themselves as “leftists” or “progressives” and who could be intrigued by the proposals made on this disc, I would like to say with Fahim Amir, author of “Revoltes Animales” that “on the animal question, the left wing is right wing”
This is a major problem because we cannot be considered progressive as long as we fight against one form of domination while ignoring one or more others: a struggle of the proletariat which postpones the feminism until later would not have no interest, any more than an anti-speciesist struggle which would accommodate the exploitation of humans
or an anti-colonial struggle which transgressed with anti-Semitism or homophobia, or a feminist struggle which would consider the trans question as secondary, or a fight to defend French workers at the expense of foreign workers, or a fight for better living conditions that forgot the fate reserved for refugees here and everywhere else.
It’s important to lead all these fights, but for my part unless we hold everything together and consider that we are moving forward on one cause only on the condition of moving forward on all the others simultaneously, it seems anything but progressive to me.
To tell the truth, I am deeply revolted by the incapacity of a good part of my comrades, let’s say the anti-capitalist, anti-sexist, anti-fascist, and decolonial left, to take seriously the question of our relationships with animals and to engage in a balance of power therefore to transform them more deeply.
