Three Rivers

Look, imagine an island where the party never ends Where it's less about money and it's more about friends Where the vibes can't done It's less about fundin' and and more about fun Tropical sun, this life in the '60s comin' from the Caribbean You know Ian, Delroy, Vivian, Winston Who got drafted to England Windrush babies from Kingston to Brixton To say they're the life of the party, you're wrong My Jamaicans the entire party, you can't see? Big Notting Hill carni, you can't see? And the ride's fiber glass, G, you want see? Imagine a place wherе you raise your kids The only place you livе says you ain't a Brit They're deportin' our people and it makes me sick 'Cause they was broken by the country that they came to fix It's like They came on the invitation of the British Government The passports were stacked indefinitely to remain But for some who were children then, that was a false promise Thirty-seven years of paying taxes and I Got a letter saying I was an illegal immigrant I came to England at the age of Ten and I've lived here all my life Look, imagine a world that's flawed and full of evil Where dictators and leaders are persecutin' your people The bodies of the innocent are pilin' to the steeples The ironic part is they're preyin' on the feeble That's life in the 90s, you're Eastern European And you seein' people dyin' 'cause they're fightin' for their freedom They show you violence for havin' a voice You move out with your kids in hope of havin' a choice Life throws you a spanner, you can't handle the pain So you gamble and you drink and then you gamble again You argue with your wife and then you sleep on the couch You hit your children, then start freezin' 'em out You try and work things out, but it's never the same All the women in your household are livin' afraid When you look into the mirror you're reminded again That you've become the dictator you were fightin' against It's like We're fightin' for, fightin' for our mother And then we, we, we are fighting for our homes, fighting for our... for our own... Look, imagine a world that's fucked and untrue Where the many pay a price for the few And every day the sun rises a little later That's how it is when your oppressor is your liberator That's right now, livin' in the Middle East Praise Allah for the peace Death from a sky littered with stars You run away with your kids so you can give them a chance But your asylum has got you in a different war Because the British wanna know what you're livin' here for We rely on migration more than ever before They're key workers, but they couldn't even get in the door When you're at Heaven's gates, what you tellin' the Lord? You wouldn't even let a kid into some steadier shores That's a life they may never afford Surely you would wanna give your People chances that were better than yours? No? Ten years of conflict And twelve-thousand children have been killed or injured The children here are just a tiny fraction of the Estimated six million in need of emergency humanitarian assistance And still perhaps as many as three million no longer live in their own home With up to two million children no longer attending school The opportunities of this generation Have been changed forever by this conflict I went to silence when I need to know who the, who the fuck I was, bro Like, I won't hear anyone else, shut everyone else out So I could just hear myself, bro You know what I'm sayin'? 'Cause we live in this world, yeah You stand still, the way the tides set up It will take you away from yourself, you feel me? So then I was like, "Aight, cool" But I had to get silent But it's not like man's goin' against the tide 'Cause goin' against the tide still makes it about them Still makes it about the poison that you've internalized, that's in your mind, you feel me? It's like "Bro, why am I in this water?" Man, this isn't even water, it doesn't even like me, 'cause it's not even for me It's not takin' me where I wanna go, it's not takin' me where I wanna go It's who, who the fuck I am, bro What I'm sayin' is like the tide will tell me that bein', bein' black is a obstacle Know what I'm sayin'? I just... switch rumors, bro I say bein' black is a asset, I am who I am because I'm black And I love everythin' about it, you feel me? And that's who the fuck I am