I love MC Solaar. He’s likely my favorite rapper next to Aesop Rock & Jay-Z. The amazing thing about him is he tells stories like Country music, but still has that swagger. He’s a bit boring in concert, but his albums are insane. Born Dakar, Senegal at a young age he’s credited with popularizing rap in France. This song Si On T’demande (If We Ask You) is my favorite song from my favorite album, Chapitre 7 (Chapter 7). His flow is sick, he mixes it up, yet its seamless. He also has an unreal step in from featured artist Bambi Cruz.
My favorite part from the song is the delivery from Bambi Cruz “Les gens qui ment, on les tics n’est ce pas?” That means “People who lie have tics, no?” While he delivers that line he cracks his voice which seems like a mistake, but it’s him indicating his tick, showing he’s lying. He does this “cracking of his voice” earlier in all his question lines earlier in beginning his stanzas. Should we believe anything he says? It’s brilliant.
This song is less a story, but more of him showing his skills and dissing some random person who’s never named. In between insulting the nameless dude’s intelligence, and/or inexperience, and/or maybe it’s just unwillingness to be willing or able to share something about deep about himself. MC Solaar & Bambi Cruise walk around whoever that nameless guy is with their flow and incredibly varied knowledge about the world. They artistically reveal what they care about as older, wiser men. MC Solaar wanted to save the world but says he’s really just living. Bambi Cruz talks about being old, expressing how he sees interactions between women and men, and many other thoughts that come from his smart observances on the world he knows well.
The great thing about this rap is that not using anyone’s actual name to diss, they’re sort of dissing anyone else who isn’t them, especially young kids coming into the rap game. The rhymes are so sick we agree with them and declare them the winners of this fictional rap battle without knowing or caring who the nameless person is or if they did their (rap) battle before or after this song.
I have listened to this song just on repeat over and over and every verse blows me away every time and the chorus gives me chills. Even though the mandolin really carries the beat, that fucking flute doesn’t hurt either.
French lyrics translated to English
Bold are the words Bambi Cruz cracks his voice with this delivery
MC Solaar
I wanted to change the the world like Bono & Yoko Ono
That without making clowning around, the masculinity or bonobo
I hideout in the streets like a functionaire of Beauvau (street in Paris)
Listening to Kid Loco, Powo Wow, and Lil’ Bow Wow
I loved K. Solo, Holiday of Monsieur Hulot
The scratches of DJ Polo, the nerve of Nico Hulot
Well ahead of No Logo, I believe that I was eco
Because I lived through Seveso, Chernobyl, and then Amoco
Claude-Claude, M-M, C-C, So-So, la-laar
oft-oft, en-en, two-two, time-times over just one, which it restarts
Maybe that secret can prepare Raffarin 2012 (presidential candidate)
Maybe the bamboo crisis is caused by Bambi Cruz
Now, I’ll break it down: the girls want big jugs
The men become crazy, they have photos of Rocco (famous movie)
Liquid flows, think solid, Alstom (railroad manufacturer)
The gas state are the words for Gazprom (Russian Energy Company)
Chorus
If we ask you?
Well, you say you don’t know!
If we ask you?
Well, you say you don’t know!
If we ask you?
Well, you say you don’t know!
If we ask you?
Well, you say you don’t know!
Bambi Cruz
Call me Submarina because the taffy is what me make in loucedé (secret Parisian language)
In order to breath fresh air in our area
One asks myself often,
Bambi Cruz, tell me what’s up?
The good pieces are more rare than the hair on our heads
Seriously, is God dead? More hardcore
The seasons disappear in the Quartier Nord at Vercors (neighborhood in Paris at a mountain range)
Because mamas come from Panama savor my banana
Escalade like the ones that climb Himalaya
devour it like a Tagada (amusement ride)
Then they come to do dada on daddy
The most attractive pappa as the last Prada
The people who lie have ticks, no?
If we ask you? Well, you say you don’t know!
Chorus
If we ask you?
Well, you say you don’t know!
If we ask you?
Well, you say you don’t know!
If we ask you?
Well, you say you don’t know!
If we ask you?
Well, you say you don’t know!
There are more zeros behind their Euro
and even more they’re happy
Dude, you’re not zero net
we can save the planet
without making chicks
The Bible is the calculator
Chorus
If we ask you?
Well, you say you don’t know!
If we ask you?
Well, you say you don’t know!
If we ask you?
Well, you say you don’t know!
If we ask you?
Well, you say you don’t know!
Bambi Cruz
When we debark at the park in a 4x4 just chatting,
it claps. So, what’s that brand?
Chorus
If we ask you?
Well, you say you don’t know!
If we ask you?
MC Solaar
Name, Last, Age, Profession, Sex, or Religion?
Well, you say you don’t know!
Bambi Cruz
Are you brunette or blonde, skinny or round, dumb or the Mona Lisa?
Chorus
Well, you say you don’t know!
MC Solaar
Even if you know who’s going to win the World Cup and the lads ask you
Chorus
Well, you say you don’t know!
MC Solaar
If a dude in a parka approaches you and asks your name,
Well, you say you don’t know.