Montreal Transit paid a rapper to film a promo, threw him to the 3rd rail for rapping in English

[get these nets]

Montreal

Transit agency cuts Montreal rapper's promotional video over use of English​

Social Sharing​

CDPQ Infra said video did not meet its requirements to promote electric train network​

CBC News · Posted: Aug 26, 2022 3:26 PM ET | Last Updated: August 26


Makendal St-Félix, also known as Maky Lavender, posted the video of his collaboration with the REM on YouTube last year.



The first rapper on Montreal's new electric train was disappointed to find out his promotional video was pulled from the transit system's social media page.

"It was good visibility," said Montreal rapper Makendal St-Félix, known as Maky Lavender.

St-Félix was excited when he was approached to perform at a promotional event unveiling Réseau express métropolitain (REM) car replicas last year.

He was given a jersey to perform in and was asked to appear in a 30-second video, where he raps in a car replica and references the REM.

The REM's official TikTok page posted the clip on Tuesday, which was soon flooded with comments criticizing St-Félix for rapping in English.

Montreal rapper Makendal St-Félix, known as Maky Lavender, had his promotional video for the REM taken down over language concerns. (Sarah Leavitt/CBC)
The rapper said he assumed the commenters were trolling, referencing a common joke on TikTok imitating Quebecers telling anglophones to speak French, when it escalated.

When The Journal de Montreal first noticed the post and reached out to the REM for comment Thursday, the post was taken down. CBC has not seen the post in question.

"If [the commenters] were serious about that, that's funny," said St-Félix.

He said he found it "weird" that the corporation took down the video, when he was the one asked to create the promotional content. He also said he received a call asking him to refrain from speaking to the press.

"I don't really understand what I did wrong because I was paid to perform by the DIX30 as an event for the train," said St-Félix. "There's so many companies, so many corporations, I'm the little guy."

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ)'s infrastructure wing, which manages the REM project, told CBC the video did not meet their publication criteria on sharing information regarding the electric train.

"Our digital platforms highlight the different milestones of the project and are mostly in French," said CDPQ Infra spokesperson Emmanuelle Rouillard-Moreau.

St-Félix has spent the summer touring outside Quebec and said the experience helped him understand Quebec's language politics a bit better.

He said it can be a struggle to juggle wanting to have appeal outside of the francophone province while keeping his local reputation.

And if his rapping career doesn't take off, St-Félix said he would become a farmer in Gaspé

 

[King Sun]

Montreal is bilingual but its?very french

 

[get these nets]

@Soundbwoy

@BigMan @mson
@ZoeGod @havoc @kej718 @Saint of Commerce @intruder @Mirin4rmfar @MidniteJay. @Samson @HaitianPatty


WHO'S COUSIN IS THIS??

 

[Black Mamba]

CACbec.
Stupid fukking CACs this place is like the Florida of Canada.
I hate it

 

[diggy]

They know a few words of English there apparently

 

[staticshock]

CACbec.
Stupid fukking CACs this place is like the Florida of Canada.
I hate it

How does poutine taste though

Always wanted some but it looks like something you only need to have once a year

 

[darius19]

Montreal a dope ass city in the summer time

The women and they’re so friendly and like brehs

 

[darius19]

How does poutine taste though

Always wanted some but it looks like something you only need to have once a year

It’s French fries, gravy and cheese. Tastes exactly what it sounds like….a big ass cheat day lol

Hella dope though. Goat drunk food

 

[Goat poster]

They really just need to break away and do their own thing.

They go so hard to differentiate themselves
As québécois and being Canadian is a distant second to them.

They know they won’t cut it as their own country tho.

 

[Black Mamba]

How does poutine taste though

Always wanted some but it looks like something you only need to have once a year

Its iite I'm lactose intolerant so I rarely eat it.

 

[Black Mamba]

They really just need to break away and do their own thing.

They go so hard to differentiate themselves
As québécois and being Canadian is a distant second to them.

They know they won’t cut it as their own country tho.

They never will all these idiots that wanted their own country are boomers and a lot of them are dying off.

 

[get these nets]

He got his money, so good for him.

Didn't make sense for him to rap in English for the audience it was intended for. Backlash was inevitable. Language is part of culture.

Not sure if he put the line in for shock value/controversy or if it's a phrase that doesn't translate in Canada, but his first line in the rap sounds like he said
"We used to run trains, now they made one"

Hardly an appropriate line for an advertisement. And lazy writing on top of that.

 

[Black Mamba]

He got his money, so good for him.

Didn't make sense for him to rap in English for the audience it was intended for. Backlash was inevitable. Language is part of culture.

Not sure if he put the line in for shock value/controversy or if it's a phrase that doesn't translate in Canada, but his first line in the rap sounds like he said
"We used to run trains, now they made one"

Hardly an appropriate line for an advertisement. And lazy writing on top of that.

There’s a lot of english speakers in Montreal and the south shore where that REM is starting at like a lot.
Its just these insecure cock sucking separatist cacs that are most of them white supremacists(they see Quebecois culture as being “pure laine” which is only whites Quebecois who speak french.
Florida of Canada. Only good thing in Quebec is Montreal as soon as u leave the city or the region it gets extremely redneck racist and they don’t speak real French its a b*stardized redneck version of it

 

[Yehuda]

He got his money, so good for him.

Didn't make sense for him to rap in English for the audience it was intended for. Backlash was inevitable. Language is part of culture.

Not sure if he put the line in for shock value/controversy or if it's a phrase that doesn't translate in Canada, but his first line in the rap sounds like he said
"We used to run trains, now they made one"

Hardly an appropriate line for an advertisement. And lazy writing on top of that.

Didn't watch but

 

[get these nets]

There’s a lot of english speakers in Montreal and the south shore where that REM is starting at like a lot.
Its just these insecure cock sucking separatist cacs that are most of them white supremacists(they see Quebecois culture as being “pure laine” which is only whites Quebecois who speak french.
Florida of Canada. Only good thing in Quebec is Montreal as soon as u leave the city or the region it gets extremely redneck racist and they don’t speak real French its a b*stardized redneck version of it

Language is part of culture/identity there as much as it is where my family, yours, and this rapper's are from.
I won't knock anybody for trying to preserve/promote the language they speak.