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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Rapper Nick Conrad fined for ‘Hang White People’ tune on YouTube, faces incitement to murder charges in Paris

Ducks swim on the overflowing embankments of Paris, Wednesday, June 1, 2016. A French rapper is being fined and is facing a charge of incitement to murder after posting a video, “Hang White People,” on YouTube in September 2018. Attorneys for the musician, who goes by the stage name Nick Conrad, argue Conrad was using artistic license to satirize racism by reversing the roles depicted in the film “American History X” wherein white neo-Nazis perpetrate violent acts on a black man, the BBC News reports Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019. (Thibault Camus / Associated Press)
By Theresa Braine Tribune News Service

A French rapper of Cameroonian descent who goes by the name Nick Conrad is being fined nearly $6,000 for a since-deleted YouTube video that depicts the torture and hanging of a white man and calls for the killing of white babies.

The nine-minute video, “Hang White People,” was published on YouTube in September and taken down days later by the video company for violating its terms of service, according to BBC News. The piece was decried by anti-racism groups as promoting violence.

Paris authorities began investigating, and now have levied the fine and charged Conrad with incitement to murder, which could get him up to five years in prison and more than $50,000 in fines, BBC News reported Thursday.

But Conrad, 35, and his attorneys argued in court that the video was meant to satirize racism by reversing roles in a play on the film “American History X,” in which white neo-Nazis perpetrate violent acts on a black man, BBC News reported. This put it in the realm of artistic license, his attorneys said.