Music: Thomas Mackenzie Bell/Ashley Thomas
Oi, nah, this is that North West
music, yeah,
looking back on my journey from the
moment I was born from nursery to
man's 30's, formative years, teens,
twenties shaped man early, Thatcher
years, that was the decade that
Mum birthed me, I'm a eighties baby
yeah it sounds cool but I was really
born then, I grew up in North West,
Wookie and Lain told us every day
is like a battle but I never had a
war chess but my Mum was a hard
worker, pups was a hard worker,
went to school in Harlesden was a
fast learner, I had a t mobile before
the orange merger, those eight years
prior there was a lot of murder, '02
to '10, back when waps were called
skengs, war on the whole ends go to
parties to celebrate life, could meet
your own death, all of that to no
end, in retrospect makes no sense,
nonsense, it was boys stopping boys
from becoming grown men, for a
thousand pound I heard a man kill his
own friend, I heard they tortured one
boy to the point it was grotesque, see
a man go jail skinny come out hench
no neck, see a man go jail litty come
home to no bread, the beef got so
sticky, left innocent boys dead, hit
boys and girls bullets discriminate
no sex, see a man go lick kettles get
caught and go pen, now he's sitting
down and doing time for a Rolex,
oh the irony, we live so close but we
hate each other, didn't like condoms
so now he's gotta baby mother, but
it weren't his girl now his ops can't
wait to **** her, I've seen that unfold
and just send a man crazy brudda,
North West we've had some crazy
summers, everybody 38 and under,
what a way to come up, those were
the circumstances were raising under
rudeboys and the G's
on the come up,
Lost in Dreams, til you slumber,
ring, ring, ring, got your number,
hey, hey, hey, hey,
rudeboys on the come up,
OG's washed up, tryna keep up,
nine night long prayers,
then cheers, through tears,
look, made to my thirties, I lucky
I am God blessed, you know what
I'm saying if like me you grew up
on endz, tryna find a way out is like
tryna find the arc of the covenant,
thanks to the Government, grew up
on Majors and Blairs and Browns and
Camerons, under surveillance and
under cameras, police used to pull us
over guns drawn, at 17 and harass
us, they never saw kids they saw our
Blackness, from the moment we're
born the odds are stacked as high as
the Shard, to reach the same level
work twice as hard, from Kidulthood
to Adulthood life is marred, pull
em up they say that you're pulling
a card, spinning their lies on us,
stereotyping disenfranchising
us, marginalising us, then you're
chastising us, Macpherson proved
they're criminalising us,
you are what you see and you see
how the world sees you, it's a cold
world don't let it freeze you, key is,
educate yourself and it frees you,
look some will find a way to do it
legal, others shooting in the snow
like Alejandro IΓ±Γ‘rritu, we took
lemons, made lemonade, we took our
demons then demonstrated, it's still
**** the police Mr. Mark Duggan,
may you rest in peace,
Mr. Stephen Lawrence may you
rest in peace, God bless the dead,
God bless the deceased, whether
they died at the hands of police, or
whether they died lost their lives to
the streets, could you be loved I got
that on repeat, I Reni Eddo Lodge
any shackles on me.
STICKY
[Young Bashy]
Selecta, that's it, that's it, that's
it, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's
(laughs) how many lyrics, yeah,
let's go let's go, let's go, yeah yeah
yeah yeah, yeah yeah, okay
made mistakes in life, no regrets
gotta live with that, no DJ can't spin
it back, no refunds can't bring it
back, people don't wanna see you
grow, always bringing up this and
that, stand in my truth I live in that,
when man's in their feelings give
dem facts, helped man when they
were on their face, when they're
down they were giving thanks, when
they're up wanna shit on that and
forget gotta cheek I'll give em that,