Popular French rap artist Orelsan has attributed his public feud with Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe to a "misunderstanding," following a controversial lyric from his latest record, "La fuite en avant."
The track, "La petite voix”, features Orelsan rapping as an inner voice that criticises himself, his family, and his fans.
The controversy ignited with a line targeting the Mbappe family – "You’ll sink your city like the Mbappes."
This referenced the 2024 takeover of Caen’s football club by Mbappe’s company, Interconnected Ventures. Orelsan, a long-time fan of the Normandy city's team, which was relegated last season, grew up in Caen.
Mbappe reportedly took the lyric personally, publicly accusing Orelsan of hypocrisy.
The France captain wrote on social media last week: "You’re welcome to come ‘save’ the city you love so much," adding a pointed 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 de-escalate, suggesting the feud stemmed from a misunderstanding in a recent interview.
"I don’t really feel like responding," he stated. "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."
He elaborated on the song’s theme: "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 questioned about the ongoing controversy at France’s training camp, Mbappe declined to comment further.
"Nothing to say, I’m not interested," he remarked.
Mbappe’s France have the chance to secure World Cup qualification over the coming days. They face Ukraine on Thursday before taking on Azerbaijan three days later.
