Next Of Kin

The mum don't speak
She got 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 was 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
Them 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
Lord protect me and my friends
There's a beauty buried 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 you? '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 Lord knows I raised him
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 Pele
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 repped 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