Rap-Tout
| "Rap-Tout" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Les Inconnus | |
| from the album Bouleversifiant ! and Les Étonnifiants | |
| Released | 1991 |
| Genre | Rap, hip hop |
| Length | 4:00 |
| Label | Sony Music |
| Songwriter(s) | Didier Bourdon, Bernard Campan, Pascal Légitimus |
| Music video | |
| "Rap-Tout" on YouTube | |
Listen to the song Rap-Tout or Buy it on amazon
"Rap-Tout" is a rap and hip hop song by Les Inconnus, a French trio composed of Didier Bourdon, Bernard Campan and Pascal Légitimus, released in 1991. The song was first broadcast during the fourth episode of the program La Télé des Inconnus on 14 June 1991 on channel Antenne 2. They also sang it on stage in some of their following shows. The song is featured on their albums Bouleversifiant ! (1991) and Les Étonnifiants (1992).[1][2]
Description[edit]
Les Inconnus portray the role of three brothers named Ursaff, Cancras and Carbalas, vampires who steal everything. The song title and the expression "rapent tout" included in the lyrics is a word play of "Rapetou", the French name for the Disney characters Beagle Boys, who are bandits that constantly attempt to steal the money from Scrooge McDuck's coffers. The names of the vampires refer to three social organizations in which Les Inconnus have contributed :
- URSSAF : Union de Recouvrement des cotisations de Sécurité Sociale et d'Allocations Familiales (Organization for the Collection of Social Security and Family Benefit Contributions), a French network of private organizations that collect employee and employer social security contributions. However, the name that appears on the music video is modified and spelt "URSAFF" instead.
- CAMCRAS : Caisse d'Assurance Maladie et Caisse de Retraite des Activités du Spectacle (Health Insurance Fund and Pension Fund for Entertainment Activities).
- CARBALAS : Caisse de Retraite du personnel des Bals, Activités de Loisirs et Associations du Spectacle (Pension Fund for the Staff of Balls, Leisure Activities and Entertainment Associations).
The song parodies the French fiscal system that contains nearly 200 different taxes. It is also a critic of the French fiscal system that is considered oppressing and confiscating.
Their song enumerates a long list of taxes, fines, contributions, direct and indirect taxes, real or fictional, including the following ones that are authentic: lottery games of the Française des Jeux (Loto, Bingo, Tiercé, Quarté, Quinté, Quinté +), land value tax, real estate tax, business tax, apprenticeship tax, taxes on tabaco and alcohol, penalties, vignettes and revenue stamps, vehicle registration certificate, car insurance, fine tickets, registration rights, gasoline tax, toll, fiscal taxes, local taxes, direct and indirect taxes, solidarity tax on wealth, income tax, annual flat-rate tax, solidarity social contributions, non-wage labour costs, capital gains, early retirement contributions, shares, SICAV, salaries, profits, inheritance taxes, etc.
The song lyrics also contain the sentence "Salut ! T-V-A bien ?", which refers to the cult sentence "Salut ! Tu vas bien ?" featured in the lyrics of their song "Auteuil, Neuilly, Passy", and in which Les Inconnus have referred in other performances. In this version, TVA is also a world play that is the name of the Value added tax in France.
Music video[edit]
The video begins showing the Élysée Palace under a worrying sky as the Dracula castle. Les Inconnus are disguised in vampires with a blue-white-red bow tie (colours of the flag of France) and coming out of coffins.
Later in the video, some French politicians are shown with vampire teeth added : Charles Pasqua, Édith Cresson (Prime Minister at that time), François Mitterrand (President of the French Republic at that time), Pierre Bérégovoy (Finance Minister at that time) and Jacques Chirac.
A clock is shown and getting closer to midnight, which corresponds at the time the vampires get out of their coffins, but also at the time the taxpayers have to drop their tax declaration on the last day.
A rich man scares the vampires and makes them run away by showing them a passport of Monaco, considered as a "tax haven", instead of the usual crucifix. In a gallery, there are portraits representing celebrities who have known troubles with the French tax system : Alain Barrière, Michel Polnareff, Charles Aznavour, and finally a question mark indicating who would be the next person on the list.
In another scene, a man enters a tunnel and attempts to put a stake in the heart of one of the vampires, who then reveals that his heart is protected by a gold ingot hidden under his shirt, which makes the man run away being scared and then chased by the vampires. At the entry of the tunnel is written a twisted form of the French Republic motto "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" ("Liberty, equality, fraternity"), which is changed into "Liberté, égalité, fiscalité" ("Liberty, equality, taxation").
Soon after, the three vampires open their coffin each one at a time, the first one reveals a T, the second one a V and the third one an A, showing the acronym "TVA", which are the three letters of the French name for the VAT. They right after say the sentence “Salut ! T-V-A bien ?”.
At the end of the video, three men follow a hearse and then return themselves : they are the three vampires, that have scaring red eyes and make diabolic laughs, allusion to the music video of "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. A small text is also mentioned in the bottom-left corner of the screen at the total end of the video, written "Taxé par Pullicino" ("Taxed by Pullicino"), in reference to Gérard Pullicino, a French director who collaborated with Les Inconnus in the early 1990s.
Anecdotes[edit]
A few weeks later after the broadcast of the sketch, the three members of Les Inconnus had a tax audit.[3]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Les Inconnus – Bouleversifiant!". Discogs. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
- ↑ "Les Inconnus – Les Étonnifiants". Discogs. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
- ↑ "Les Inconnus : la totale ! (C8) - 6 anecdotes sur leurs sketchs cultes" (in français). Télé 7 Jours. 19 July 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
See also[edit]
- Auteuil, Neuilly, Passy
- "Taxman", song by The Beatles
External links[edit]
- Song lyrics on the site Paroles.net
- Music video on YouTube
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