I move like a fiend in the company of moonlight
Midnight goons in platoons on the flip side
Of paradise, scandalise, street-side parasite
Street life satisfies the young mind's appetite
Police dragonflies like moths around candlelight
Dynamite lifestyle raise up the Fahrenheit
Cats carry knives like they modern day samurai
Drive by hammer time, crime no alibi
Die in a phone box
Trying to dial the last 9
Front line hard times, crack sells, hard crimes
Hustling for food like we starved in our past lives
Blunt blade sharp eyes, guarding my archives
Time passed by the rainy days and the dark nights
Weed spots open all hours like Arkwright
Crack pipes, police lights, street signs, slum life
Black suns, red moons, doomsday's front lines
Death rides the sunrise, the young die in gun crime
White lies illuminate the sky in the night time
Sometimes I wonder why I'm stuck in this pipeline
White collars thrive while the hood-rats ride time
Ghost town media's alerting all the dead minds
Next time we gotta try and stop for these red lights
10 times realer than you're reading in the headlines
10 times realer than you're reading in the headlines
Extra! Extra! Trouble in the hood again
All these hood-rats up to no good again
Otis Redding used to sit on the dock
But when you're from the hood you've got to sit on the blocks
On the block
Solitary time on the Top
On the block
Tourists walk by and don't stop
On the block
Cats come around for their rocks
On the block
The police want to keep us all locked
On the block
Reporters never come to your spot
On the block
Shotters stood shotting all their shots
On the block
The place where they leave you to rot
On the block
Your block, my block
All blocks, these blocks
Moved by the hard times, in brightness we're scarred
Tried as hard as your most, stressed and prayed for a good rest
And see the sneaky wolves will eat you up, and roam the flats
Who have you stuck, and watch life crushed,
Guns banging out like church bells and
Crack sells [and?] every bit as healthy as stock shares or eating well
I've seen a loan shark swim past fast
And if he dashed for the cash like that... He ain't gonna last
Gripped by the high life was the way of the lowlife
Who gripped knives to get nice shoes that he really liked
Who said that kids from inner cities are rough?
Yeah, they rough, because they scuff to survive up on the come-up
Who said that life on the estates was hard?
Yeah, it's hard,
Because we all live in stacked together like a pack of cards
Holding the last crumbs of supper
This meal is like many others
For those suffering it's old news
We need new shoes
Can you link it?
Because no one out here on the street wants the Olympics
How many homes for the Millennium Dome?
All that cash gone to waste instead of building estates
Now, corruption's sown deep as seed we're all fighting
Lusting for a better way out than just dying
Extra! Extra! Trouble in the hood again
All the hood-rats up to no good again
Otis Redding used to sit on the dock
But when you're from the hood you've got to sit on the block