The Real Madrid striker and his family were the subject of a controversial lyric in a new song
A ‘misunderstanding’ is how a popular French rapper has described a public feud with Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappe.
Orelsan, real name Aurélien Cotentin, took aim at Mbappe with a lyric from his latest record, ‘La fuite en avant’, with the France captain hitting back on social media.
In the track ‘La petite voix’, the 43-year-old musician raps as an inner voice that criticises himself, his family, and his fans and, at one point, targets the Mbappe family with the line: “You’ll sink your city like the Mbappes.”
This is a reference to the 2024 takeover by Mbappe’s company, Interconnected Ventures, of Caen’s football team, the club Orelsan, who grew up in the Normandy city, supports.
Caen were relegated to the third tier of French football last season and the line appeared to rile the 26-year-old.
He wrote on social media last week: “You’re welcome to come ‘save’ the city you love so much,” adding in a postscript: “The guy kept begging us to join with 1% without paying a cent — because he’s broke — just to look like the nice guy from Normandy.”
Orelsan has since sought to play down the spat, saying: “I don’t really feel like responding.
“I’m still in the heat of the moment, and I don’t really want to talk about it. It’s a misunderstanding. I think I just need to properly explain the concept of the album.”
Elaborating on the theme of the song, Orelsan added: “These negative things form a kind of inner voice – an inner critic – that starts to eat away at me and only see the bad. It’s a big theme of the album.”
When asked about the controversy at France’s training camp on Wednesday, Mbappe declined to be drawn into further comment on the matter.
“Nothing to say, I’m not interested,” Mbappe said.