Cross, rise to fame (2007–2010)
Justice's debut album, titled Cross, was released on Ed Banger Records on 11 June 2007. The album was released in the United States on Downtown/Ed Banger. The album was preceded by the D.A.N.C.E. EP, released on 28 May 2007, which featured the tracks "Phantom" and the band's own remix of "D.A.N.C.E.", titled "B.E.A.T". "D.A.N.C.E." was nominated for "Video of the Year" at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. On 1 November, Justice received the "Video Star" award at the European Music Awards in Munich and was named the Best French Act of the Year. Justice was chosen to do a mix for the Fabriclive series in 2008, but Fabric rejected it. De Rosnay said, "They weren't ready for something like this." Now titled "Justice Xmas Mix", the mix is available on the Internet.
Justice appeared as a Live PA at the 2007 Parklife and festivals around Australia, the 2008 Coachella festival; the 2007 and 2008 Sónar festival in Barcelona; Fuji Rock Festival in Niigata, Japan; the Hultsfred Festival in Hultsfred, Sweden; the Oxegen festival in Kildare, Ireland; the T in the Park festival in Kinross, Scotland; the Reading and Leeds Festivals in England; the Vieilles Charrues Festival in Carhaix, France; the Roskilde Festival in Roskilde, Denmark; Pukkelpop in Belgium, at the "I LOVE TECHNO" festival in Ghent, Belgium; Dour Festival in Belgium; Rock Werchter in Belgium; the Lowlands festival and the Pinkpop festival in The Netherlands; at Tennents Vital in the Radio One Tent in Belfast; at the Phoenix Park Marquee in Dublin; and at the Festival Internacional de Benicàssim in Spain.
Justice was nominated for Best Dance Recording (for "D.A.N.C.E.") and Best Electronic/Dance Album (for Cross) at the 50th Grammy Awards. Justice released their music video for "Stress" on 1 May 2008. The clip features a group of youths committing acts of vandalism and harassment, wearing jackets bearing the Justice cross on the back. Accused in some quarters of racism for its stereotypical depiction of youths of African descent (black and North African) from Paris' socially deprived banlieues (outer suburbs), others saw the video as a critique of the portrayal of blacks in the French media. Speaking in an interview with The Quietus, 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."
In a 2005 interview with Dummy, Justice said it wanted a strong concept for each record it put out, and with this one, the duo wanted to keep people guessing. Asked in an interview whether their cross-based themes had received any negative feedback, 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."
On 1 June 2008, The Sun announced that Justice was chosen by Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers to produce the band's follow up to Stadium Arcadium, but this was quickly corrected by Ed Banger manager Pedro Winter, as Anthony Kiedis had only stated he was a fan of Justice, not preparing for a collaboration. In July 2008, Justice was revealed to have done a mix for the Dior Homme Summer 2009 Fashion Show, much like Daft Punk did for Louis Vuitton in 2007.
The track, now known as Planisphère, was released in four parts on the band's MySpace page. The four parts were officially released on streaming services in 2022, with a physical vinyl release.
On 25 August 2008, the band announced via MySpace that its next major release would be a DVD documentary/concert film titled A Cross the Universe. The announcement was also tied to an invitation for fans to email photos, images, and artwork to an address, so the received photos could be compiled for use as artwork for the release. An iconic scene in A Cross The Universe takes place in Las Vegas, where, as a homage to US hard rock singer Axl Rose, Gaspard marries a groupie he met three hours earlier. During a DJ tour for the release of A Cross the Universe in November 2008, controversy arose when a photograph of Augé DJing with an unplugged Akai Professional MPD24 surfaced. The photograph sparked accusations that Justice's live sets were faked. Augé has since said that the equipment was unplugged for only a brief moment before being reattached, and the band posted a three-photo set of the incident on their MySpace page.
Justice played 2009 New Year's Eve in Chicago at the Congress Theater to a crowd of 4,000 people. Augé was later seen at an after-party thrown in honor of the band, featuring various local DJs, artists, and photographers. In January 2009, French group Birdy Nam Nam released its album "Manual for Successful Rioting", for which Justice produced the last song on the album, "The Parachute Ending". The band's remix of MGMT's "Electric Feel" won a Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical in 2009.
In the November 2009 issue of Mixmag, Justice stated that it would be working on the soundtrack for Mr. Oizo's upcoming film, Rubber, saying they had to "finish working on the soundtrack for Mr. Oizo's new film before we start recording for the new album." In April 2009, the music website Stereogum hosted a remix by the duo of U2's song "Get on Your Boots", the lead single from the band's most recent album No Line on the Horizon. Their remix of Lenny Kravitz's song "Let Love Rule" was also featured on Kanye West's blog. They played at the 2009 Voodoo Experience in New Orleans, as well as at the HARD Haunted Mansion in LA over the Halloween weekend.
