Prison

Prison, you're locked him up within your prison

Prison, forever guarded in your prison

Prison, where others make all your decisions

And when his wings are cut a bird forgets how to fly

When I was young, life I was living it wild, a criminal child

My police record was longer than the great river Nile

I was touring Great Britain through prisons with other villains

Was captured for street crime, and my freedom forbidden

Took from the streets to the cells the first day that I reached

I weren't feeling the smell of green blankets or stained sheets

These places are deep, you should see what they was making us eat

The first time I'd seen multi-colored bacon and beef

Rock cakes and solid bread rolls that were breaking your teeth

And they put bromide in your tea and shit for making you sleep

In jail they call that shit diesel, ain't joking or pretending

A murky looking liquid that could run your car engine

Caught a couple of sentence, the courts that called it detention

To me prison's a crime school, I wasn't taught about prevention

Not gon' mention the screws, in their black Dr

Marten shoes, twisting your wrists down the

Block, beating prisoners black and blue

Fucking with you on your visits, so you don't get nothing through

Cameras moving on your table when you make the slightest move

It's like everyone's got something to prove, but don't go

Fronting on dudes, especially lifers who've got nothing to lose

I spent my time on the wing, in the library and the gym

It's every inmate for himself, in jail you sink or you swim

I done my thing selling black ass and serving the man's green

And sometimes I had more canteen than a damn canteen

Prison

The whole vibe's satanical

Prison

It's where they treat people like animals

Prison

Where uniform staff abuse their power

Prison

It's where inmates fight each other in the showers

Prison's not a nice place to live, trust me, cells are crusty

Plastic cutlery, beds are rusty, smells musky

Dirty and dusty, the whole system just disgust me

23 Hour bang up, no shower, that shit be fuckry

Cockroaches attacking you, like they're mad at you

Slumping out with piss cups, smelling other inmates bladder juice

The 80s was the worst before they had toilets and sinks

Every inmate doing shit parcels and voided his stink

In the summer it's so hot in the cells, in the winter it's cold

To the point sometimes I think it froze some prisoners' souls

Young offender institutions packed with too much kids

Some so scared they hang themselves

I've found with two slashed wrists

Nowadays man's getting tagged like

Gifts, but they never had that shit

Back in the day you was just bagged, that's it

No PlayStations and TVs, cassette recorders and CDs

No wearing your own clothes, believe me nothing was easy

Just an AM radio tuned to the John Bill show

Tony Blackburn and some real dope sones from Steve Rhodes

Back in the day the courts they never tried to do me no favors

Turned down my bail application the same as Judging Chambers

Prison

That's when they take away your freedom

Prison

Is a place when you're surrounded by demons

Prison

That's where I've seen terrorism

Prison

Is a place for Bush and Blair, not television

I'm trapped in my cell, frustrated, vexed, angry and bitter

Till I smoke two zoots and drink two hoots prison liquor

To wash down the prison dinner

I've been locked up with killers, born sinners

Hardcore villains, heartless and vicious

I've seen people scalded with sugar water, stabbed with scissors

I've been locked up in the block for

Fighting in the showers with ****

Highly strung when I was young, I turned up on my cell and smashed it

Someone pressed the bell, the screws rushed me with bully tactics

Real madness, they had me strapped up in a straitjacket

Injected me at 17 years of age, then denied it happened

These places are being operated by uniformed racists

Little dictators who abuse their power on a daily basis

Trying to function above your state

Is what they taking it out on me for

It's not my fault that it's turned

Down by the Army and the police force

Keys, doors, bars, bricks, they call it HMP

Her Majesty's pleasure, it ain't the place to be for you and me

I'm telling you...

Prison, you're locked him up within your prison

Prison, forever guarded in your prison

Prison, where others make all your decisions

And when his wings are cut a bird forgets how to fly

Prison

See, motherfucker sentenced me but he ain't gonna get my dignity

Kiss my ass