West Side Hori

Juse (beatmaker) Tipene bay Yeah yeah, West side hori Now let me take you back where this brother started out Just a chapter in my life I wrote song about My mum was only young when she met my father 'bout Twenty years ago she got kicked out of my father's house I 'member asking "where we going Mum, what's wrong with Dad?" "Just get your clothes and jump in the car" was all she said For all I knew we was going for a ride I wondered why this was in the middle of the night And sometimes, we'd go to school with no lunch and no shoes Nobody turning up to parent interviews Nobody on the side line on Saturdays Both of them would say "...oh boy, I didn't even know you had a game" I didn't really understand All I knew is that my father couldn't stand and my mother always ran We was always stranded at some random people's house Drunks singing through the walls with a blanket on the couch I was raised on the west side of Flaxmere And when I'm in the hood I reminisce on how we were back then It's where everybody's stuck in the same rut We didn't have much but it was always just enough It's where everybody knows your name The place I call home where we all learned to grow through the pain It's, it's the place that made me strong I got love for my hood so I show it in a song See we got pretty used to it everyday they used to booze it That's where I think I first got introduced to music Engelbert, Luther Vandross and Lionel Richie By the time I heard MC Hammer I was rhyming swiftly 91' Kriss Kross hit the scene They were 'bout the same age with the braids they were mean And there it was the beginning of a dream I wanted to be an MC way before my teens Straight out the boondocks where who's tough and school sucks Selling skinny tinies out belt bags just felt bad I'm gone' be a waste? Nah not if I can help that I had to stay in school Or probably end up in jail too, we made a few Demo tapes in minimal takes and gave it to anybody willing to taste It was that first lyric when I rapped I heard spirits Knowing the ones closest to me would be my worst critics, yeah It's the west side of Flaxmere, Paharakeke Where every day's a test and your bound to grow some chest hair We'll leave the rest scared, Tui be the best beer Mob territory where they all dress red And everybody's hard-up and you're lucky if you get fed Back of the bakery for seconds just to get bread Don't get arrested Because the olds on the pizzle And no food in the cupboards be the best bet Where every elder in the whanau was respected Don't answer back boy your bound to get a smacked head Remember back when They'd leave your brains leaking on the fricken street Like the yoak from a cracked egg And with that said, a single mattress On the ground was considered lucky that we had beds And thats a fact man like sardines Probably why we all had each others backs like chiropractors I gotta get it off my chest my story They call me the west side hori I gotta get it off my chest my story You can call me the west side hori I gotta get it off my chest my story It's going out to all the west side horis I gotta get it off my chest my story It's going out to all the west side horis