Next Of Kin - Ghetts, Rukhsana Merrise, Confect

The mum don’t speak

She had a front row seat to her son going sleep for eternity

One don’t see what don’t concern me

But she opened up to me personally and I show her love 'cause it burns me

Nobody’s mum don’t deserve this

Over some drugs it’s disturbing

He ain’t no angel, But I ain’t so perfect

And I see my mum in his mum like she birthed me

Memories gold and cursed

Other people around us

Money ain’t everything

I call on blessings

Not just for me but

Protecting my next of kin

You know, my bros

She told me I resemble him — eyes, nose and everything

Went the same school, but I don’t remember him

He was much younger

And I was probably there before the psycho had settled in

Five-O arrested him

Same book, I know the story too well

20−20, I already saw it too well

These man are checking scoreboard, they wanna war and do well

It’s never called for, even when it’s afforded you well

So I know what’s happening today

Can’t turn the cheek when they slap me in my face

Just like the wars you label off of

Everybody’s playing the blame game, it’s your fault

Generations down the line

We’ve forgotten how it started

Man are just hopping out of cars with tools and popping out apartments

Mummy don’t understand the logic in this carnage

We falls, and possibly our fathers

Must be a robber or an arsonist

Well I have been a robber in the past tense

Festival seasons, soon, come on, coming like Robin when I pass tents

She said I sound like her son did

I said I wish I could’ve met him 'cause he sounds like the one kid

I probably could’ve reached before a gun did

Life is like a candle in the wind

Don’t protect me and my friends

There’s a beauty hidden in the mess

Help me see heaven in the end

Appreciate the ones we have left

Long as everyone’s blessed

Only thing that matters in the end

I know you’re probably thinking

Who’s calling?

'Cause I know it’s late, I’ve run out of places to run to

But this couldn’t wait

'Cause I miss my baby

No, you can’t replace, no, you couldn’t save him

Blame me instead, 'cause

Pick your fights, or pick your flight

We’re the only ones who can lose your life

I’m on my way, I’m on my car

We’re the only ones who can lose your love

I called out for my mum with my last breath (mama, mama)

Now I’m just another son in a casket

And mummy wants answers

She don’t have a clue why I deserve this

She probably think I died a virgin

But I was riding, lurking

Firing, bursting

And now the beef’s squashed, I been gone for a decade

No-one comes to the cemetery regularly

For the block I lick shots like Pelé

But now I’m just a distant memory, if anything

Mum’s the only one who stopped living when I did

Most my bruddas got sons and they live in the nice bit

They took the drugs and the guns and put it behind 'em

But nobody reps for the hood like I did

Memories gold and cursed

Other people around us

Money ain’t everything

«I really don’t understand why they are not treating this as the emergency that

it is.

It’s a public disaster happening in slow motion in front of our eyes.

If these young people were white and they were on the streets of Maidenhead in

her constituency and in Windsor, there would be an utter uproar.

It would not be ignored.

This is institutional racism at the heart of

Government.

— It's a simple as that.»

Help me see heaven in the end

Appreciate the ones we have left

Long as everyone’s blessed

Only thing that matters in the end

Help protect me and my friends

Appreciate the ones we have left

Long as everyone’s blessed

Only thing that matters in the end

Help protect me and my friends

Appreciate the ones we have left

Long as everyone’s blessed

Only thing that matters in the end