LYRICS GAME

If I told you Martin had a dream

I had a nightmare where every detail scarred me

It's carved in my memory

I bolted upright with that strange feeling

Of not being able to tell reality from the dream

2024, barely two years after little Napoleon got elected President

His Islamophobia's no longer rhetoric

It's a way to govern, it's policy

Meant to great-replace the RN, weaken them and get Emmanuel re-elected

He was just a pawn, everything was planned

At least that's what they thought, but he was elected

The country's on the verge of blowing up

The poor are poorer, the yellow vests are blood red

He crushes the movement brutally

Proves to the naïve you can be xenophobic and liberal

The beggars who trusted him must admit

They've swapped puppets but not master

Little Napoleon doesn't set foot in the provinces anymore

But he pampers the very rich who funded his campaign

The rappers are busted flat

Little Napoleon can't stand that hood music

So he shuts Skyrock down and suddenly, since they ain't making cash anymore

They all go back to conscious rap

Up steps young Maryam, forced by a new law to get renamed Marianne

Heart warmed by faith in an icy France

Marianne's made her choice, she wants to wear the veil

Her folks oppose it, not from conviction

But in this new France when you're Muslim

You gotta hug the walls, stay tiny

Don't show you fast, never say you pray

That day Marianne comes back from university

Her turquoise blue hijab, she had to take it off at the entrance

Then put it back on as she left, headed to the stadium

A moment's escape, running makes her less gloomy

Marianne blows everyone away in the 100 meters

Over that distance in France no girl can match her

But in little Napoleon's republic

Athletes like Marianne get banned from competition

Marianne settles at the back of the bus, pulls a book from her bag

She's supposed to get off at the terminus, she's cramming for her exam

But the bus stays put, Marianne wonders what's up

His heart poisoned, his face made ugly

The driver shows off, turns toward her and says

'Ma'am, this is France

You should keep your beliefs in the private sphere

If you don't like our ways, be coherent

Grab your slippers and your stuff, go back live in Algiers

Yes, I'm talking to you

In this bus you're the only one with a rag on your head

Either you take off your veil or you get off

I won't drive this bus while you're in it'

Those are the words he throws in her face

Misunderstanding and fear disfigure her

Nobody flies to her rescue

Through her, it's Islam they want to settle with

Things spin out, since the bus won't move the riders are on edge

They tell her to get off, hurling rage at her

A woman who calls herself feminist spits right in her face

Marianne feels humiliated, hears bursts of laughter she'll never forget

She struggles under the blows and insults fly

A man rips off her veil before she leaves the bus

The scene gets filmed, posted online

Marianne turns into a symbol, the video goes viral

The fascosphere cuts loose in the comments

Kindness seldom hides in hearts of stone

The country's on edge

We're waiting for the next address

From the president of all the French

Hoping that for once he'll show some compassion

Not a single word for Marianne, nothing

He goes further, pays tribute to Marshal Pétain

Then millions of French pour into the streets

To protest a France they don't recognize anymore

I catch myself thinking we can still be different and French

Hypocrites like Éric Naulleau are kicked out of the march

Accused of complicity, passive racists

The movement's pacifist but disturbed by pro-Napoleonists

On the fringes they assault Lassana

Who'd been forced to change his name, renamed François

François isn't some average Frenchman, the whole country knows his face

'Cause only a few months earlier, at the risk of his life

He'd saved Madame France from a fire

Yet Madame France never hid

That she shared the same ideas as little Napoleon

When she was saved Madame France made her mea culpa

And the naïve believed again in reconciliation

That's the end of a symbol

Drowned in his blood, François lies on the ground

The 'Great Replacement' is no theory anymore

Like in New Zealand it spawns massacres

Lassana's blood makes the cup run over

Worse than 2005, the projects ignite

Identity crews meanwhile get organized

Government lets it happen, France balkanizes

From all over Europe, ultranationalists turn France into a battlefield

Battle-hardened, the weapons stock comes from Ukraine

Where there's war there's gun-running at the cost of our tears of pain

Meanwhile our hoods are boiling

I call for calm but I feel like nobody hears me

Homemade bombs replace the cocktails

The melody the kalash' sing is deadly

Little Napoleon declares a curfew

On his orders the French army moves into the projects

Holed up in the Élysée with a grin on his face

He counts the dead in the civil war he dreamed of

Extremists lying in wait spring into action

They see in this a chance to split the country

Claiming they wanna avenge Muslim blood

They carry out the deadliest attack of the decade

Bodies pile up by the hundreds

I feel helpless faced with so much pain

My hopes for peace vanish

Even the most pacifist folk radicalize

Add to that a new pandemic

Way deadlier than the last one

In a war where we're our own enemies

Where every coming day is way worse than yesterday

I had a nightmare

I've got blood all over my memory

I wake up drenched in sweat

Is the real world any better?

Marianne