The history of Justice
Justice started out in 2003 with their well known remix of Simians 'Never be alone' which is now better known 'We are your friends', which was created for a Paris college radio station as a remix contest, which then got them signed to Ed Banger Records in Paris-who’s boss is busy p, another well known DJ-who released the track, it instantly became a massive hits in clubs and the internet all over the world, but it only finally got commercial release in the UK in the summer of 2006 under the title of ‘We Are Your Friends’.
After word had got round about these two they were do more remixes for more mainstream artist’s such as Britney Spears, N*E*R*D, Daft Punk and Fatboy Slim.
Their first ever solo single was then shortly to be released in 2005 on Ed Banger Records with the title of “Waters of Nazareth”, this new fresh sound caught the attention of lots of big DJ’s such as Tiga, 2 many DJ’s and Erol Alkan. But yet again the track was re-released in 2006 but with additional remixes by the likes of Erol Alkan and themselves.
Justice’s first major achievement was at the MTV Europe music awards in
2006 for ‘we are your friends’, even though they were not their at the
Ceremony fellow DJ and label art director “So Me” was there to pick it up
On behalf of them, but during mid-speech he was interrupted by Kanye
West, who rushed the stage arguing that he should have won the award on
live television.
The whole US tour was based around their debut album titled “†” which
Was released on Ed Banger Records on the 11th June 2007, the album was
Preceded by their D.A.N.C.E Ep which was released in May 2007, the
video for this track was nominated for “Video of the year” at the 2007
music video awards, which they sadly didn’t manage to win, but then the
following November they won the “Video Star” at the European music awards and was named the best French act of the year. They were also nominated for other awards like Justice was nominated for Best Dance Recording (for "D.A.N.C.E.") and Best Electronic/Dance Album (for †) at the 50th Grammy Awards.
The cross
On their MySpace page in late 2005, Justice described themselves as “electro-Christian-club” and used a crucifix as a logo. de Rosnay said, “Eighty percent of France is Christian. My Dad was a bit uncertain and thought it was bad taste, but I was like, 'This is what I want to do Dad.' It’s odd because in America we have received support from Christian groups thanking us for spreading the word. We do not invert the cross and I suppose they think we look like nice guys so there has not been a problem.” In an interview for Dummy in 2005, Justice said that they wanted a strong concept for each record they put out and with this one they wanted to keep people guessing.
Music Video’s
Justice Vs. Simian – “We Are Your Friends”
D.A.N.C.E
DVNO
Stress
With their music video stress there were a lot of problems with censorship because when they uploaded their music video for Stress to YouTube on 1 May 2008, having had several TV stations boycott the video. The clip features a group of youths committing acts of vandalism and harassment, wearing jackets with the Justice cross on the back. Accused in some quarters of racism for its stereotypical act of youths of black decent from Paris’ socially deprived council estates, others saw the video as a critique of their portrayal in the French media. Speaking in an interview with The Quietus website, Augé said, “We were expecting some fuss obviously, but definitely not on those topics… If people see racism in the video, it's definitely because they might have a problem with racism; because they only see black people beating up white people, which is not what happens.”
Conclusion
This Hour long ‘master piece’ as it has been described by others is full of electronic music all over the US with alcohol infused fans screaming their love for justice and a lot more other quirky scenes which would bring a smile or confusion over a fans face, but I would recommend for any electro music fan or definitely any Justice fan to buy it because personally it was the best hour and four minutes I have spent watching a screen!
