Racailles [English translation]

You've had enough, don't you?

You've had enough of all this riffraff.

We'll get rid of it for you.1

Riffraff!

It's you we should cleanse with a Kärcher

When people will wake up, you'll get a beating

Riffraff !

We feel going to vote

is like choosing which one of you will screw us

Riffraff !

Right or lef2

Stuff your promises in your Hermès handbags

Riffraff!

You never knew poverty

You live far away from our reality

Riffraff!

The street thinks so, I'm singing about it

And for those who don't know about it, I'm publicizing it

I back no party, I'm out of your scams

Your programs are nothing but fairytales

Riffraff!

Always the same people

the same promises, the same lies

Some steal the money, others go to jail

Some are down and out, some are stuffing themselves

Riffraff!

The same liars put the same money aside

The same servants serving the same masters

The same poor kids go to jail

The same rich kids get educated to rule

You can hardly find a representative without a criminal record

My hatred for the system is still intact

Who among you can throw a stone at Cahuzac?3

Riffraff!

Claude Guéant4, riffraff ! Balkany5, Jean-François Copé6, riffraff !

Philippe Herman7, riffraff ! Harlem Désir8, riffraff! Alain Juppé9, riffraff!

All these guys have been sentenced, yet

it's the suburb people they drag through hell

Riffraff!

You thought Tandem was shocking10

You do the same to France, until she bleeds,

until she goes under, like Greece or Italy

You have mauled the country and left it agonizing

Riffraff!

How many offices will you hold?11

Or is it multiple incomes you really want?

Riffraff!

Like the whole common folk12, I have no faith in politicians anymore

Still I'm fighting on, I believe in a citizen's wake up call13.14

Riffraff!

In order to change things, you have to want to

You have no real cause, except power

Riffraff!

You do politics without beliefs

Sometimes it's just a way to escape jail15

Riffraff!

The real gangsters are wearing suit and tie16

You have no beliefs anymore, and nobody believes in you anymore

Riffraff!

Just look at the rate of absenteeism

You'd better not take people for morons, I'm warning you17

Do you feel the winds of change as you change sides?18

Between the street and you, there are only riot squads left.

Riffraff!

On its last leg, your system is in a dead end,

trying to wriggle out of it, like a legless cripple19

Riffraff!

You get elected for a promise

which you don't hold.

Actually you do the contrary,

and you don't even let that bother you.

Riffraff!

And if the people fancies a rebellion

you have an army of well groomed and eager cops at your command

Riffraff!

Labour relations are lying in a coffin

Cops are shooting their flashballs, you can lose an eye with these20

Riffraff!

You cultivate resentment toward the police,

you use the police like your own private army

A politician, male or female, in my opinion anyway and for now,

maybe tomorrow I'll change my mind, is just worthless21

He's just a service provider.

These fucking debts that pester everybody,

that bring peoples down, draw them to their knees and so on,

we can't get rid of them,

just like you politicians can't make them disappear, these fucking debts...

Because the Bank, it's stronger than you !22

Riffraff!

It's common knowledge, it's an obvious thing

You are totally subservient to financial business

Riffraff!

You pass the bills commanded by the rich

After how you used the 49.323

Riffraff!

We work more, but we earn less24

we're just waiting for an European summer25

We pay into pensions that we might never see

You grab back all the money we earn

Riffraff!

Trying to make ends meet,

we feel like slaves to the banks

Riffraff!

Even the rich know the game, them's the breaks

(while) smal buisnesses are bled dry by social contributions

Riffraff!

We pay for radars26

We pay at road tolls27

We pay for pollution

Riffraff!

I wonder what you're doing with all this money.

What the hell was Eric Zemmour doing on a public network?28

Riffraff!

We pay29 to propagate his hatred,

to sow seeds the FN30 will reap

In your eyes, even Marine Le Pen has become acceptable

Any Islam opponent can sit at your table31

Riffraff!

Unable to rule, you just divide

Riffraff!

Unable to gather, you just stigmatise

Riffraff!

Blinded by power, your hearts are veiled,

much more than the face of this veiled woman32

Riffraff!

Your supposedly inalienable principle of religious neutrality33

doesn't apply to this Saudi woman on the Champs Elysées

For you, everything can be bought and sold, it's all about money

You are even willing to sell the suburbs to the Quatari34

Riffraff!

You're swimming in murky waters

Riffraff!

You practice doublespeak

Riffraff!

In the so-called "Land of the human rights"

State of energency has become routine35,

and still you go and lecture the whole world,

force democracy upon countries with mortars36

You ruthlessly killed Khadafi,

and see the sorry state of Lybia now.

The street knows it, I'm just adding the music

Your medias hush about it37I'm publicizing it.

I'm standing up to you like a suburban rebel38

Will this kind of lyrics earn me an S record39?

Self-assured,

I'm not one to roll over

Upright and defiant

I'm doing Hip-hop

You call that nigger music

I'm on an indie label

I won't be seen

on Skyrock40 ever again.

(never, never)

They don't like what I am, what I fight for, my beliefs.

Well, the feeling is mutual.

They turned RAP into a farce

I am among the survivors

They praised mediocrity to the skies

They turned Hip-hop into commercial music

They played on our dissents to divide us

We're free to fight among ourselves as long as it increases the audience

The day a rap singer will get killed,

they'll come up with a memorial peace concert

Yeah!

I'm doing anti-establishment music

while you're selling advertising space.

Riffraff!

I sacrificed myself for my younger brothers,

while you play tunes that will send them to their graves

Riffraff!

Dough and violence in your playlists

You're making my people brain dead, it pleases the elite

Riffraff!

You used me, I used you, so that my message

could reach as many people as possible.

Now I can do that without your help.

I've got a supportive audience

I've done things, people remember that

The street loathes you, I'm publicizing it

Nothing has changed since "Lettre à la république"41

1. From the very famous propaganda scene of our former (and possibly future) president Sarkozy, addressing some granny leaning out her window in one of the worst city blocks around Paris. At the occasion, he spoke the famous phrase where he boasted he would cleanse the suburbs from the riffraff with a Kärcher industrial cleaner.2. "Les Républicains" is the latest creation of Sarkozy's right-wing movement. PS is the socialist party3. A socialist minister recently sentenced for having stashed money in Switzerland4. The most prominent advisor of Sarkozy's5. Old pillar of the French right wing, involved in countless shady buisnesses for the last 3 decades: pliffering public money, corruption, vote falsification...6. Another member of Sarkozy's gang. Bronze medal of the worst right-wing morons after Nadine Morano and Frédéric Lefèbvre (in my personal charts; your mileage may vary)7. Sorry, don't know this one8. Started with anti-racism in the 80's and ended up a big fat wig of the socialist party9. Yet another right-wing contender for the next presidential elections10. A rap band from the early 2000s. One line of their lyrics went: "I'll fuck France until she falls in love with me". This caused some commotion about 10 years ago.11. There's a running heated debate going on in France about limiting mutliple offices. This yellow belly of Hollande promised he would see to it, but we're still waiting...12. lit "France from down below". The term has become a cliché to name the common folk, by opposition to the ruling class. Filling the void caused by the eradication of marxist vocabulary, basically13. Another fine piece of common French waffle. "Citoyen" has become a kind of expletive to name anything that is rightful and selfless. "réveil citoyen" would be like the fantasy of decent people rising up in defence of the values of the French Republic (freedom, equality, brotherhood, that sort of thing).14. As you might have guessed, I don't15. Notably our former presidents Chirac and Sarkozy, involved in a host of sorry buisnesses, and also a few former Ministers like for instance the socialist Laurent Fabius (the one who presided over cop21), who was involved in a huge scandal about AIDS-contaminated blood in the 90's and escaped prosecution in debatable circumstances16. Or rather "wearing suit and tie real gangsters are".

Yoda talk is a common rap figure of style.17. Or else, what will you do, Mr James, mmm ?

Among the "bon mots" of Sarkozy's, he once said about the reform of pensions: "It's not the street that rules (the country)".

More recently, our beloved prime minister Manuel Valls, about the reform of labour code: "What's the fuss? The law will pass anyway"18. lit. "do you feel the wind turn as your jackets do?".

A pun on "le vent tourne" (the wind is changing direction) and "(re)tourner sa veste" (to change sides).19. plays on "cul de sac" (dead end) / "cul de jatte" (legless).20. Refers to an actual case of a demonstrator being blinded by a flashball shot that has caused some commotion a few years ago21. This impressive list of reservations seems quite telling to me.

History books are full of "useful" politicians who ended up doing a lot of unpleasant things.

Kery James is no fool, he feels there is something wrong there :)22. Economics are just not Kery James' forte it seems.

A pretty good, if somewhat pathetic, illustration of the way economics rule over our lives: an incomprehensible and ruthless steamroller that we name "the banks" for lack of a better word.23. A famous paragraph of French constitution that allows the government to bypass the parliament, in exchange for a vote of confidence. This heavily tilts the balance of power in favour of the executive, and can lead to question the democratic nature of French institutions.

The 49.3 was last used to pass the infamous new labour code.24. One of the major promises of Sarkozy's back in 2009.

The motto was "travailler plus pour gagner plus" ("work more, earn more").

Crumbs thrown to the proles in exchange for a deregulation of working hours, if you ask me.25. In reference to the Arab one26. Common rant about speed radars being cash machines rather than security features, but I guess that's not France-specific27. Privatization of the French highway network was indeed a scandalous affair, leading to preposterous toll rises and a general degradation of the roadways state of repair, despite the promised benefits of free-market economy28. An insufferable right-wing polemist, riding on the theme of the decline of French culture and civilization.

He has indeed worked a few years as a journalist for "France Télévisions", the state-owned broadcast network.

He was sentenced for "incitement to racial discrimination" in 2011 after an especially virulent of his usual rants about "Black and Arab people"29. Television licence fee is a part of the income tax in France30. For those who spent the last few decades on Mars, that's our beloved right extremist "Front National" party, led by Marine, daughter of the previous leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.

The current FN strategy is to pose as more moderate and consensual than before31. He's got a point there.

Especially after the recent streak of suicide attacks, the whole French political establishment is shamelessly brown-nosing the FN to grab a few crumbs of the xenophobic votes.

"Je suis Charlie" is turning into "Je suis Marine" fast

("suis" as in "I follow". Just my little joke)32. The Muslim veil has sparked interminable debates in France these last 10 years, leading notably to the "veil bill", a law forbidding to harbour religious signs in places like schools or public services.

The last instalement was a rather appalling nationwide argument about body-covering swimsuits, that lasted the whole summer.33. The principle invoked to pass the "veil bill"34. Allusion to various real-estates (and a soccer team) being bought by Quatari funds35. Indeed the state of emergency proclaimed after the Bataclan killings of october 2015 has been extended 4 times and is still in effect.

The next prolongation will be decided in december 201636. "mortar" is just there for the rhyme. More efficient means of destruction are usually employed.37. More like "drown it in a flood of crud with a few fluffy kittys wading at the surface", in my opinion.

I very doubt Kery will be able to convince enough people to start a revolution before his song sinks into the goo.38. "les Minguettes" is a district of Lyon where riots took place a few years ago39. A national security procedure for monitoring potential terrorists.

There is yet another heated debate about the (mis)use of this procedure to hinder political opponents posing no threat whatsoever to public safety.40. The most popular radio station for suburban kids. The epitome of commercial broadcast41. "open letter to the (French) Republic", another song of his.

I'm done translating this guy for now, so don't count on me for this one!

• Artist:Kery James
• Album:Mouhammad Alix