You can't really say you choose where you're born
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What the five senses are gonna discover bit by bit
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One day my parents dropped their suitcases, so there you go
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These sidewalks saw my first steps
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I come from where guys roam in crews to beat boredom
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I come from where, downstairs, they play soccer in the middle of the night
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I come from where people care about the brand on their clothes
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And even if we buy them at the market, we don't joke with style
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I come from where language is in constant evolution
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Verlan, rebeu, slang, a big creative process
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At our place, the researchers
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The linguists make appointments
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We don't always share the same dictionary
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But we've got more words than you
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I come from where the kids all master trash talk
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A PhD in roasts, comebacks that never stall
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Street smarts, hustle smarts, everyday intelligence
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Call it what you want but if you try to scam us, watch out
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We swear on our mother's head at nine years old
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We curse easily but with inventive vocab
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I come from where, at the first parties, we're already break-dancing
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I come from where our first dates happen around a kebab
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I come from where we love rap, that music that sweats
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That smells real, that passes on, that testifies, that breathes
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I come from where there's heavy sound and plenty of bitter rhymes
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I come from where nobody's shocked
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That a crew is called F*ck Your Mother
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I come from there and I dig it, whatever people think
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To each their territory, to each their France
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If I pay tribute to these spots with every breath
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It's 'cause it's here I drew all my inspiration
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I come from where, at twelve years old, temptation keeps calling you
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Illegal business and shady deals by the shovelful
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I come from where it's way too easy to take the wrong road
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And to choose your path, you gotta push aside lots of doubts
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I come from where violence is a well-known neighbor
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A guy bleeding in the schoolyard
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Is a weekly picture
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I come from where far too often a bunch of nasty kids
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Find their pocket money by snatching handbags
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I come from where you become an athlete, artist, singer
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But also a lawyer, civil servant or senior exec
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Don't get it wrong, I've still got loads more jobs on my list
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Skip the ready-made ideas and journalist clichés
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I come from where we trade, I come from where we mix
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What bugs me is the lack of noise and smells
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I come from where the rainbow doesn't have six colors but eighteen
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I come from where France is a cosmopolitan country
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I come from where, more than anywhere, there's real energy
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I really feel that thing, it's not demagogy
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We don't have the merit monopoly or the desire monopoly
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But where I'm from, for sure, it's a good school of life
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I come from where we're a bit wary and too often paranoid
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We often think nobody likes us
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And maybe that's not completely wrong
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You should see on TV how they talk about where I'm from
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If I didn't know the place, I wouldn't even take my dog there
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I come from there and I dig it, whatever people think
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To each their territory, to each their France
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If I pay tribute to these spots with every breath
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It's 'cause it's here I drew all my inspiration
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I come from there and I dig it, whatever people think
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To each their territory, to each their France
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If I pay tribute to these spots with every breath
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It's 'cause it's here I drew all my inspiration
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I come from where, like everywhere, when we sleep we dream
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I come from where people are born
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People love, people die
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You see, where I come from
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Is like any place on Earth
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Just a small region with a hell of a character
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I come from where we're proud to say where we're from
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Don't know why but that's how it is, we're all a bit chauvinistic
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I could've lived something else somewhere else
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Too bad or so much the better
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It's here I grew up and built myself
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I'm from the projects, I'm from the projects