RAP GROUP LOSES GRANT OVER LANGUAGE LAW

Their new album was in the can, but this being Quebec, one more task awaited Dead Obies: counting the lyrics to determine how many words were in French.

The result — 55 per cent French, 45 per cent English — meant the group of 20- something francophone rappers from Montreal’s South Shore would lose an $ 18,000 grant they had been awarded by Musicaction, a foundation that distributes federal government and radio industry money to emerging francophone artists.

Under a 30- year- old Musicaction rule, only records with 70 per cent francophone content are eligible for the grants, so Dead Obies were obliged to return a $ 9,000 payment that helped fund the recording and forego the $ 9,000 balance.

And because the equivalent anglo phone grants, administered by FACTOR, are available to performers who have no more than 50 percent French lyrics, the 55- per-cent-French Dead Obies are ineligible for them as well.

Dead Obies member JeanFrançois Ruel said he has trouble complaining about a grant when he sees governments cutting vital programs.

But the subsidies are crucial for young artists, he said, and the rules that determine Dead Obies are not true francophone performers seem out of touch with modern Quebec.

“I think the way that Quebec culture is going to preserve itself and not be swallowed by the mass Internet culture and American culture is by staying on point and staying modern and giving support to the new generation that is doing things another way,” Ruel said.

Musicaction said the 70 per cent threshold is a “historic rule” that furthers its mission of developing francophone music in Canada.

The federal Department of Canadian Heritage, which provides more than half the $ 8.4- million distributed annually by Musicaction, said in an emailed statement the foundation operates“independently from the government” and has full freedom to set requirements.