The rapper Abd al Malik returns to the front of the stage with a first novel and a play that he stages at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. At the microphone of Matthieu Noël, he defends an artistic approach that aims to reconcile cultures in a world paralyzed by fear.

After the rap, Abd al Malik invests the literary field. In the show L'equipped sauvage , the rapper detailed Tuesday the outlines of his first novel Méchantes injuries published by Plon. In parallel, the 44-year-old rapper staged a play by Albert Camus, Les Justes , performed at the Théâtre du Châtelet until 19 October.

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In these two works, Abd al Malik questions the notion of French identity in a mixed and multicultural country. "Of course, [being French] is not a skin color, nor a religion, nor a sex, it is the fact of adhering to values ​​in principle, it is ultimately a relationship to the world". there.

Evil injuries tells the story of a star rapper, Kalim, a French, black and Muslim, of Congolese origin. The reader follows him on his trip to New York where he is the victim of a shooting. Faced with this violence, the hero, an alter ego of Abd al Malik, advocates a more united and fraternal society.

"The revolt yes, but there are limits"

The idea of ​​a youth trapped in a world that denies minorities is also a theme of the righteous . The play indeed explores the path of Russian revolutionaries who decided, in 1905, to kill the Grand Duke to put an end to his tyranny.

Faithful to Camus, Abd al-Malik does not defend the legitimate violence body and soul either. "The revolution yes, the revolt yes, but there are limits, like the innocent ones and the children." Camus wrote The Righteous in answer to the Dirty hands of Sartre, who said that the end justifies the means ", recalls the rapper.

He who "believes less and less in politics" also says he proposes a "political manifesto" in Wicked wounds . "Literature, a novel, is a political project," says Abd al Malik. "The idea is to talk about all the issues that are debating today and propose solutions."

Open borders

"How to make people?" This is the question that guides the work of Abd al Malik, both in the staging of the Righteous and in his novel. To find the answer, it is necessary, according to Abd al Malik, to see "the other in oneself".

Presenting Les Justes at the prestigious Théâtre du Châtelet is therefore part of this process. "It means that there is no closed cultural place for anyone and that it is open to all," he says. Open, it is also the key word of his novel and his play. They follow the same goal, according to the rapper: "to put the big texts in echo with the urban and hip-hop cultures so that people can meet".