Je Viens De Là Lyrics in English Grand Corps Malade

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Below, I translated the lyrics of the song Je Viens De Là by Grand Corps Malade from French to English.

You can't really say you choose where you're born

What the five senses are gonna discover bit by bit

One day my parents dropped their suitcases, so there you go

These sidewalks saw my first steps

I come from where guys roam in crews to beat boredom

I come from where, downstairs, they play soccer in the middle of the night

I come from where people care about the brand on their clothes

And even if we buy them at the market, we don't joke with style

I come from where language is in constant evolution

Verlan, rebeu, slang, a big creative process

At our place, the researchers

The linguists make appointments

We don't always share the same dictionary

But we've got more words than you

I come from where the kids all master trash talk

A PhD in roasts, comebacks that never stall

Street smarts, hustle smarts, everyday intelligence

Call it what you want but if you try to scam us, watch out

We swear on our mother's head at nine years old

We curse easily but with inventive vocab

I come from where, at the first parties, we're already break-dancing

I come from where our first dates happen around a kebab

I come from where we love rap, that music that sweats

That smells real, that passes on, that testifies, that breathes

I come from where there's heavy sound and plenty of bitter rhymes

I come from where nobody's shocked

That a crew is called F*ck Your Mother

I come from there and I dig it, whatever people think

To each their territory, to each their France

If I pay tribute to these spots with every breath

It's 'cause it's here I drew all my inspiration

I come from where, at twelve years old, temptation keeps calling you

Illegal business and shady deals by the shovelful

I come from where it's way too easy to take the wrong road

And to choose your path, you gotta push aside lots of doubts

I come from where violence is a well-known neighbor

A guy bleeding in the schoolyard

Is a weekly picture

I come from where far too often a bunch of nasty kids

Find their pocket money by snatching handbags

I come from where you become an athlete, artist, singer

But also a lawyer, civil servant or senior exec

Don't get it wrong, I've still got loads more jobs on my list

Skip the ready-made ideas and journalist clichés

I come from where we trade, I come from where we mix

What bugs me is the lack of noise and smells

I come from where the rainbow doesn't have six colors but eighteen

I come from where France is a cosmopolitan country

I come from where, more than anywhere, there's real energy

I really feel that thing, it's not demagogy

We don't have the merit monopoly or the desire monopoly

But where I'm from, for sure, it's a good school of life

I come from where we're a bit wary and too often paranoid

We often think nobody likes us

And maybe that's not completely wrong

You should see on TV how they talk about where I'm from

If I didn't know the place, I wouldn't even take my dog there

I come from there and I dig it, whatever people think

To each their territory, to each their France

If I pay tribute to these spots with every breath

It's 'cause it's here I drew all my inspiration

I come from there and I dig it, whatever people think

To each their territory, to each their France

If I pay tribute to these spots with every breath

It's 'cause it's here I drew all my inspiration

I come from where, like everywhere, when we sleep we dream

I come from where people are born

People love, people die

You see, where I come from

Is like any place on Earth

Just a small region with a hell of a character

I come from where we're proud to say where we're from

Don't know why but that's how it is, we're all a bit chauvinistic

I could've lived something else somewhere else

Too bad or so much the better

It's here I grew up and built myself

I'm from the projects, I'm from the projects

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SONG MEANING

Je Viens De Là is Grand Corps Malade’s heartfelt postcard from the French suburbs, written with both swagger and tenderness. In two breath-taking verses, the slam poet invites us onto the sidewalks where he learned to kick a football at midnight, perfect break-dance moves, and master a street slang so creative that linguists now study it. He paints a vivid collage of branded tracksuits (sometimes bought at the market), booming rap beats, and rainbow-bright cultural mix, reminding us that this banlieue is a hotbed of humour, energy, and quick-witted resilience.

Yet the song never hides the flip side: easy shortcuts into crime, flashes of violence in the schoolyard, and a media gaze that often reduces his neighbourhood to clichés. Through it all, Grand Corps Malade’s refrain rings with pride: “À chacun sa France” — everyone has their own slice of the country. His suburb may be rough around the edges, but it is also a “good school of life,” the birthplace of his art, and proof that inspiration can bloom where the world least expects it.

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Grand Corps Malade Je Viens De Là Lyrics