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