L'impasse [English translation]

Bébé

Just stop getting on my nerves, man. What did you do before, again? We don't have money so we do what we gotta do. You're not the one to get something to eat for my mother. So just give me a break a moment.

Kéry James

You're getting mad, Béné

Bébé

I want dough

Kéry James

You want dough?

Bébé

Dough!

That's the only thing real to me

Kéry James

Up to you

(chorus Bébé)

I need dough right now

Tell me what's the point of going to school?

We're doomed in France, anyway

I don't need their degrees but bills

I need dough right now

Tell me what's the point of going to school?

We're doomed in France, anyway

I don't need their degrees but bills

Kéry James

You wanna stop school?

Béné, you're getting crazy, you lost it

Many have been where you're going to

And it's been long since their smile and their future died there

It's been two or three generations since we've being doing the same things

Not in the same way, but we kill each other for the same reasons

The same junkies mug their own mothers for the same doses of drugs

Our building hallways look different but our brothers hold the same poses

Do you know what kind of risk you're running?

If you light the wick, little brother, it's bound to explode

Same contracts with the street including the same clauses

You get killed if you talk too much

Take a breath if you're afraid of closed spaces

The street is stifling, they're all insane, as in a hospital

Carreers suffering from scolioses

No one still toes the line of neurosis

Is that what you want, Béné?

Tell me, is that what you're worth?

Is that your life?

Béné, tell me, is that what you aim at?

Bébé

Oh yeah!

(chorus)

Kéry James

Hey, if you stop school now, I can already tell you

What will definitely become of you, Béné

You'll build a team

An older guy will advance you coke and shit

To sell it, you'll need a territory

As you're young and brave, you'll get it with your knife

Then, you'll take the place of dudes who've been there for too long

And who forget that time passes by, but to each his own time

All of our legends are dead or fallen, locked up or ruined

'Cause they've been to prison or madhouse too many times

When I rap the street, it's precise, just like HD

From wholesale to retail, with your guts

And a few big guns, you'll make big money

From the MPD to the drug squads, as the victim of your own reputation

They'll all have their eyes on your wealth

You won't need anyone anymore to advance you anything

You'll just have to go to Spain, ¿Que pasa?

Now you're the one to sell

In the shadow, others patiently wait for you to stumble

Bébé

Yeah, man, don't worry

They can keep waiting for my fall

I'll always live up to my reputation

I'll be smart

I'll trust no one but my partners

All whack jobs from Jacques Cartier street*

(chorus)

Kéry James

Now that you're the one to sell

The stakes are different, as well as the issues

It's difficult to get bigger without hurting anyone

Without hurting yourself

Nobody's been able to do so

One day, a guy'll refuse to give you your money

You'll want him to be last one to dare that

He'll shout it everywhere in Paris that he conned you

And you'll have to kill him so you can get your money back

It takes a lot of nerve

Bébé

I won't kill anybody for money

I do want dough, but I've still had an upbringing

I'm not crazy, I don't wanna get busted

For life. But one thing's for sure, I won't chicken out

Kéry James

Hey, you'll think you don't have a choice

You'll do it, you'll just do it, you'll just kill him

What do you think?

If not, other guys will come to shake you down

Take your dope, your cars and the money you saved

You'll care too much for your reputation as an action man

So you'll go down to it

It just takes a fraction of a second

Mortal will be the sanction

For those who'll stay alive and envy your rise

You'll become more famous, and the cops will even

Move your record to another database

With a file on 'Organized Crime'

You sure know it won't be a happy ending

Yeah, you'll get snitched on

After an anonymous phone call, stopped in your progression

While coming back from Spain, you'll get busted, accused

The worst thing about it is that even your homies will shift it to you

Letters rogatory, listen to me

Even you spend all your money for your lawyer, listen to me

You'll get ten years without parole, even if it's the first time

You'll carry out your sentence, even if you cry a river

Only your mother will support you

After a year or two, all your friends will leave

Okay, maybe one of them will remain faithful to you

This very one who'll tell you that your girlfriend is unfaithful

You'll blow a fuse, stuck behind bars

Go out after ten years, worn out, sick of it all

With a long list of things to settle up

But your team partners have been shot dead

Or they've been surpassed by young and ambitious peeps

As brave as you back then and even more evil

To get back on your feet, what will your options be

But take part in a holdup? But you'll have trouble

Bro, because next time, you'll get twenty years

You're compromised, 'cause now you have no qualification

You'll have touched too much dough

To accept to work for the minimum wage

You'll be sucked into the spiral, you'll remember what I told you

You'll envy those who continued school

It'll be too late, what's done is done

You'll regret the time when you would tell me...

(chorus x2)

The point is, avoid drug-dealing, violence and prison

To see anything but towers on your horizon

The point is build your future

Cultivate a new hope that we'll maybe get what our parents couldn't have, Béné

The deadlock...

Hardly have we got out of it, than our little brothers take our places

In the deadlock...

Our chorus** assault the tourists, how sad

This is a hardcore life, cash money, risky

It even snows on our high schools

Our chorus don't study music

Thug life

History just repeats itself, yet you think you're the most evil one

The deadlock

• Artist:Kery James
• Album:À l'ombre du show business (2009)