A violent fight between two Tunisian rappers, Laya and Boussada, which occurred yesterday at Ariana, set fire to social networks. In several viral videos, we can see the two artists engaging in a brutal brawl, surrounded by a crowd of spectators filming the scene with their phones, visibly more fascinated than indigned.
This face-to-face, organized as a real “street fight”shocked many Internet users by its raw violence and its almost ritualized staging. The blows rain, the cries are fused, and everything is captured, relayed and commented at high speed on Tiktok, Instagram or Facebook, where hundreds of young fans closely follow these figures of the local rap scene.
But beyond the buzz, this episode raises worrying questions about the drift of a certain urban culture in Tunisia. Because if rap has imposed itself in recent years as a means of artistic and social expression for many young people, it now seems to flirt dangerously with a glorification of violence.
This underground culture, long marginal, is now installed in public space, fueled by social networks eager for spectacular and sensationalist content. It is no longer just a matter of music: it is a whole way of life, with its codes, its provocations and sometimes, its slippages.
At a time when Tunisia is looking for landmarks for its youth, some fear that this kind of episodes will help to root a culture of violence and clash as a new standard.
It remains to be seen whether the authorities, like the artists themselves, will be able to take the measure of their responsibility in the training of collective imaginations.
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