A Qui La Faute Lyrics in English Kery James , Orelsan

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Below, I translated the lyrics of the song A Qui La Faute by Kery James from French to English.

I wanted to make a film, I made it

I didn't wait for Canal+

I didn't wait for the CNC

I was tired of seeing the same ones

Grabbing our stories

So I wrote my own script

Depicting our lives

I didn't sit back with my arms crossed

I only relied on my talent

I'm not a 'son of'

Only my determination has clout

I had to do twice as much

As those with half my talent

In France that's normal for an African

You ask me who's to blame

As far as I'm concerned

I didn't come into the world

To build someone else’s dreams

I carry my wins and my losses

I'm not a slave

I don't serve the French state

Yet the French state keeps f*cking you over

And if you get out of it, it's just crumbs

To make you believe that if you failed

It's 'cause you're dumb

Because the stone the builder rejects

Will end up in the window

One single film by Kery James

Two hundred by sh*tty hipsters

You made it on your own

You see what I mean, alone

Poverty, how many live below the line

Since the state's bright idea

To profit off immigrants

Palming off the projects on them

Where the middle class was killing itself

But compare those blocks

To what our parents fled from

Bois-l'Abée

That's luxury for someone from Haiti

When I look at those who have more

I remember those who have less

As far back as I can recall

I never saw Mom complain

Do you know where we come from

Yeah, I made it alone

You got it, alone

Yeah, poverty below the threshold

The suburbs aren't the only ones

Country folks, neglect, misery’s rural too

I know little white kids

For whom life is brutal

Whites suffer too

Thanks, I wasn’t watching the news

The hood’s worn a yellow vest for twenty years

Nobody gives a f*ck

France is in denial

A mix of ignorance and contempt

Don't talk to me about ethnicity

I’ve got uncles who think Africa’s a country

I know the projects

Seen by those who never set foot there

Who talk about them at every meal

Won't even think of checking the facts

I grew up in it

Don't hang with those people, you’ll get jumped

Myths and legends on TV

Gotta integrate without mixing

Struggle with no counter-example

The future will be your present

No colony without consequences

Anti-white racism, so much complacency

Believe me, I know this France

I'm not saying everybody's bad

I'm saying fear and neglect

Turn a population vicious

There's racism in France, tell me about it

I wrote Letter to the Republic

Where were you

We don't move things forward

By just stating the facts

Take it or act, I'll be straight with you

Life's a matter of choices

Neither left nor right

But if our brothers can't find work

What can they do

Except build their own company

You look at the world cross-eyed

You're naive

You still believe in SOS Racisme and protests

I'm not naive, I'm betrayed

I don't believe what they taught me anymore

Equality, the homeland, sure

Are you the one who chooses

Start a business, who cashes in on your credit

Get in the system or perish

Forget your dreams in a town-hall lobby

As long as they talk about an elite

They say you can make it if you deserve it

But you deserve to make it

It's just a trick

The state wants to lull you

And play slumlord

Just one model of success

Theirs, built on money

If they help the kids

It's to turn them into old folks like them

You can hit the jackpot

You won't beat the casino at its own game

Pyramid system, money rises

The sh*t stays at the bottom

I'm not saying everyone's in on the plot

I'm saying it doesn't bother them

I have brothers who are gone

I don't see the hood through rosy glasses

'Cause I grew up among nettles

I saw guys full of vice

Smoke a dude whom their mother

Still saw as her own son

Bullet in the head, violent death

Is it the state that pulls the trigger

Like in the northern neighborhoods

You end up getting used to it

We never needed the state

To fill our graveyards

Police blunders, no safety net

ID checks at an age when you don't know who you are

Ending up glorifying not-so-glorious stuff

Growing up in the fire

More obstacles, they're more dangerous

They put your life at stake

Dealing dope to sons of

Locked up so they can party at night

You're just a pawn in their little game

Politicians, only glory drives them

How could you think otherwise

When presidents are with show-biz chicks

In show-biz

How many millionaire kids from the hood

Have erased the word solidarity

From their dictionary

We've made dough, yeah

How many, how many entrepreneurs

How many stars has the hood produced

But success makes them amnesic

The fear of losing

What they think they own, paralyzed

How many

How many dare step up

How many dare face them

When they trash us in their papers

Who's to blame

I'm not trying to deny the problems

I don't count on the state

I count on ourselves

Who's to blame

That question belongs to the past

I have only one question

What do we do

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SONG MEANING

“A Qui La Faute” (Whose Fault Is It?) feels like a street-corner TED Talk set to a beat. Veteran wordsmith Kery James teams up with Orelsan to shoot a raw, self-made “movie” that flips the camera on French society. Scene one: Kery refuses to wait for big networks or cultural gatekeepers, pulling his own talent, grit, and immigrant background into the spotlight. Scene two: he rails against a system that pockets immigrant labor, stigmatizes the banlieues, and then blames the victims for not “trying hard enough.” The hook — “À qui la faute ?” — sounds like a hunt for culprits, yet Kery quickly pivots to a tougher question: What are we going to do about it?

Between sharp punchlines, the song stitches together poverty in rural towns, police profiling, broken political promises, and the amnesia of successful rappers who forget their roots. Instead of drowning in anger, Kery and Orelsan spark a call to self-empowerment: start your own business, tell your own stories, build community wealth. The takeaway? Don’t wait for the French state to hand you a happy ending; grab the pen, write the script, and roll the camera on a future you direct yourself.

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Kery James A Qui La Faute Lyrics