Dans ma ville, on traîne [English translation]

[Verse 1]

In my city, we hang out between the concrete and the plains

In the cobblestone streets downtown where all the shops close

We spend our weekends in the industrial zones

Near the residential districts where the houses look the same

My city is like the first girlfriend I've ever had

I can't leave her, yet I spend my time spitting on her

Talking 'bout the good weather would be looking at the sky wrong

I hate her as much as I love her, probably 'cause we're the same

We hung out on the streets, tagged the walls, skated in the parks, slept in the town squares

Threw up in the bars, danced in the clubs, smoked in the squats, sang in the stadiums

Hung out on the streets, tagged the walls, skated in the parks, slept in the town squares

Threw up in the bars, danced in the clubs, smoked in the squats, sang in the stadiums

[Interlude]

I've hung out so many times in the streets of Caen

With a bottle everyone has drunken out of

Between two worlds in suspense

Criminal the way I killed time

I've hung out so many times in the streets of Caen

With a bottle everyone has drunken out of

Between two worlds in suspense

Criminal the way I killed time

[Verse 2]

I've hung out so many times in the streets of Caen

With a bottle everyone has drunken out of

Between two worlds in suspense

Criminal the way I killed time

After 10 pm, you don't see any more people

As if we were still under bombardment

You'll just hear cops and the sound of wind

Some college rugby players drinking after a game

Who shouldn't get too close to the edge

Where they'll end up on the docks

In the few bars that are still serving

Where there are cigarettes and plastered drunk Englishmen

5 in the morning

The line at the halal spots upon leaving the club

You can take a pita or take a punch

Or you can take the first tram

And if ever you fall asleep

You'll wake up on the outskirts of town

There where the malls are enormous

Where we spent Saturdays with the family

Where I loved to walk around

Even when we had nothing to buy

Woohoo! Yeah

My parents' shopping cart slowed down in front of the Pizza del Arte

Not far from the toy store

Where I stole toy knights

Near the bridge where my grandma took me

To throw paper airplanes

Where you can see the big towers of the housing blocks

Where the architect really thought he did something

If I didn't rap, I never would've gone there

'Cause we don't mix that much where I come from

Then there's fields, then there's nothing

If you see smoke when you return

It means in the factories not too far away

They burn themselves, they wear themselves out, they make fuel for the machine

Next to linear housing blocks

Where they think about what the neighbor thinks

Where they spend Sundays as a family

Where they manufacture fragile whites

Go along the canal, take the ring road

You'll arrive at a gym where I missed decisive lay ups

Not far from a remote corner

Where girls prostitute themselves in between flocks of cranes

There where there's buses

That take you to the sea within 20 minutes

Where Parisians found us so lame

Where you can see England behind the fog

Pass by the hospital that's visible from everywhere

To remind us we'll all pass through there some day

And you'll end up back in the city

Where the posh go shopping and the punks beg

Where there are hobos whose names everyone knows

I saw Gigi slit her writs with a shard of glass

In front of the grocery store, the one that's always open

Near the castle, its moats and urban legends

I've done weddings and funerals

In the mosques, churches and temples

Under a Norman drizzle

It doesn't even fucking rain properly

My city of a hundred bell towers

Every time they demolish a building

They erase a part of my past