It’s the song of weddings, a sure-fire hit to get the evenings moving, an unforgettable piece for a generation who saw a real 504 arrive one evening at the Victoires de la Musique, live on France2 in 2000: “Tonton du bled”. The song was part of this legendary album by the rap group 113, “Princes de la ville”. With this opus, the crew won the best rap album of the year, then that of the revelation album.
This “craziness” of the time is masterfully recounted in this documentary series, currently broadcast on arte.tv, « DJ Mehdi : Made in France ». We (re)discover the musical genius of young DJ Mehdi and the whole history of this piece, witness to this time when entire families went to Algeria for the holidays in cars – often 504s –, armored up to the roof. “Ley ley la”, the captivating chorus was written by Rim’K, Mokobé and AP, inspired by a tune of traditional Algerian music. However, it is impossible to find it as is on streaming platforms, Deeez, Spotify, Apple Music, etc. Neither the hit, nor the album “Princes de la ville” for that matter.
A reissue of “Princes de la ville” before the end of the year?
In fact, the problem remained the same as that explained in the six-part documentary series: a copyright glitch. At the time, DJ Mehdi was inspired and took a sample from a raï song: “Harguetni eddamaa” by the Algerian artist Ahmed Wahby. But the rap group was not suspicious and years later, while “Tonton du Bled” became a hit, the author of the song came to claim his copyright.
A hard blow for the rappers who had to take out the checkbook. The opus “Princes de la ville” was then released from stores and since then it has no longer been sold either in stores or on streaming platforms, especially since the sample of Tonton du Bled was not released. the only one to pose a problem. “ In fact, when composing the album ‘Les Princes de la ville’, in 1999, we used and integrated extracts from songs notably by Marvin Gaye and also by Curtis Mayfield for the song of the same name. At the time, the music publishers we worked with should have negotiated and paid royalties to use these extracts and that was not done. “, explained Rim’K to the newspaper Le Parisien.
Good news, however: the rapper confided that he had bought the original soundtracks of the album. His lawyers are on the case for the rest. “ I hope the album can be released by the end of the year,” added Rim’K, who has also already announced a big date at the Adidas Arena in Paris, on December 12, 2025. Where he promises that there will be part of his 25-year career with inevitably guys from 113 inside…
Manu Key, the director of “Princes of the City”, delivered the same hope in the newspaper 20 Minutes : « There were legal problems on Tonton du Bled in relation to the sample of the song, at the time. It was impossible to put it on the platforms, but the file is progressing, we should soon find it on the platforms, the album deserves to be there ».
