Dedicated to everyone who comes from the boonies

A lot of kids I went to college with were really into French hip-hop. I liked it alright, but it never really hooked me, Until...



I just came across Kamini, a french rapper who the rest of the internet discovered like the end of last year. I'm posting him anyway, goldurnit! Because he has infectious beats, flow and a sense of humor that transcends the language barrier.

Seriously, watch the video before reading the loose translation below.
Still, he has become my current number one reason to learn French.

Dedicated to everyone who comes from the boonies
From some little one-horse town
You don't see no one there rappin aroun'
Not even a riff
A little hayseed town
Life goes on, they don't know you exist
Nobody knows your little one-horse town.
Not even that Osgood.stiff.

Kamini's my name,
From the hood--I ain't
Come from a place called Marly-Gomont
So, get with the beat, the beat, the beat that goes rum tum tum

You know in Marly-Gomont the roads ain't paved,
Average age 'round here 's about 68,
We got tennis, basketball, and that's about all,
but with just 3 guys in the village it ain't enough to play ball,
I come from the sticks, you can't get here by bus
There's 'bout 95% cows, and 5% us.

There's only one family with African roots there,
Hadda go and be mine, what a fuckin' nightmare,
Told my dad, "Might as well move to Alaska, dontcha think?"
Coulda gotten used to the cold and the folks up there.
And he said, "What the hell, you joshin' me boy? 'S gonna be all right."

Yeah right. First day at school when I was six
Bawling my eyes out, cuz o' those little pricks
You know what they called me?
Yo Africoon, yo banjo lips.
Yo, little Sambo--Outta the mouths of those kids came their parents' licks.

[Refrain x 2]
I ain't from the hood, but the beat's my own,
From the big city neither but from Marly-Gomont
The place ain't paved, the pastures are green
But you wouldn't believe the trash I've seen.

In Marly-Gomont there's no ghetto-talkin' stuff,
A little twang like this, that's good enough
Sometimes they like you,
"I don't like the Arabs, don't like no black.
but I like you fine, even though you're black."

Once in a while, they talk politics, you see
and maybe also philosophy
Anyway, what I say is, they're a rotten bunch
In their little one-horse towns, better not get sick
Or else you'll be in real deep shit, gotta go 20 towns away
30 miles or more, to find a hospital or any dman thing
Out there there's nothing but grazing fields.

Sometimes, on Sundays it's our soccer day
The stadium's a field so that's where we play
with lines scratched out, they set up goals and nets
On the local team, there's always some guy
Named Bubba: go Bubba, go", so they cry.

An' if no Bubba, then on the opposing team,
There's always some guy named Billy-Joe.
Go Billy-Joe, go, go, go!

A typical day out here: the mailman, a tractor, the mailman again, that's it.
Maybe one in a while, a cow goes by.
Moooo

[Refrain x 2]
I ain't from the hood, but the beat's my own
,From the big city neither but from Marly-Gomont
The place ain't paved, the pastures are green
But you wouldn't believe the trash I've seen.

And in nursery school, I was the only black
and in primary school, was the only black
and in middle school I was the only black
From pre-school to junior high, they were on the attack
I got beat outside or in 'most every day,
but Dad always said, "Son: no fighting, okay?".

You know I wanted to rebel, torch something to settle some scores,
But we've got one bus for school, same for the center outdoors,
No point burning your neighbor's car
They don't even have one, they all got motorized bikes
And you know, the bakery, it's 5 miles away
5 miles? Every morning? On the motorized bike? [x2]

Hey do you know where Vincent's gone?
Did he sneak off somewhere without telling anyone?
Naah, we got nothin like that 'round here, eh,
He's just off somewhere on the motorized bike, hey
Motorized bikes are the backwoods subway car
So, get with the beat, the beat that goes rum tum tum

Dedicated to everyone who comes from the boonies
From some little one-horse town
You don't see no one there rappin aroun'Not even a riff
A little hayseed town
Life goes on, they don't know you exist
Nobody knows your little one-horse town.
Not even that Osgood.stiff.

[Refrain]I ain't from the hood, but the beat's my own,
From the big city neither but from Marly-Gomont
The place ain't paved, the pastures are green
But you wouldn't believe the trash I've seen.
Yo!

(translation via Peter on Tim Worstall's blog)

The Honky-Tonk Dragon can relate, my friend.

Kamini's website
Wikipedia entry
A different translation and more info from the forum on Saul Williams' site.
A recreation of the video done in World of Warcraft.

thanks to Neatorama for the hookup, yo.