Southside

(album: Falling Into Place - 2013)

278, you already know
It ain't really much to look at but it's home
Used to bus from the old bar which was to go
Into town rolling through Otahuhu depot
Thinking how we ended up here
Yeah no secret there's some people doing tough here
Could be rough here, if your parents come here from an island
In the hope of a better life for the child and an education
But they ain't got time to keep an eye on 'em
They working every day, they won't even see retirement
School don't teach you to deal with this environment
Another poly kid left to his own devices
And you look at what they reinforce
When they talk about us doing crime, playing sports
Standing in the dole line, or in the court
Think it don't affect us all?

Look at boys from the Southside
If you looking from the outside
Some scared to death when they see us
Cos every 10/7 they featuring
Boys from the Southside
But we represent it with pride
When you feel you come from the bottom
Til you reach the top, ain't no stopping 'em
Boys from the Southside

It's about time, all the people talking shit now
Figure out why, this town is so influential
The real melting pot, immigration central
Culture, our knives be so instrumental
But still we never acting like we too damn special
Don't ever let nobody say we all just criminals
Round here it ain't all that simple

Raised there, struggle city a place where
A population, whorey five slash amazing
Most of 'em work 9 to 5 to pay rent
Go to church and sing songs and pray for better days
Better pay and a better location
The kids choose sport over education
And dream that one day the All Blacks take them
Somewhere, exposed to the drugs and the gang life
Think it's cool to get involved, end up in the can right
Got a lot of teens pushing prams before they see life
Cos their parents did the same thing so it seems right
Seem right to say the same, a product of pride over law so
When they got my back like the tat on my torso
That's why I give back, ask where my awards go

To the schools in the Southside
If you're looking for me outside
Some scared of death when they see us
Then they talk shit when they leave
Like the boys from the Southside
Are good for nothing so fuck 'em
Give 'em no chance just cuff 'em
If it was up to the cops and the judges
The boys from the Southside

Would be outlined
Shot on sight
Here we got crime in the area
If you got shine then it's any up
Only cos we broke tryna get our accounts right
What's going in our minds, six words
How we gonna get by
I don't know exactly
But we ain't gonna wait in the dole line

Yeah 267 landed a aeroplane
Back when my parents came
From the islands
With a Bible and a pair of J's (yeah Jandals)
Trying to set a better way to get our educa
Tions that we found street smarts and a free pass to the green pastures
Around these parts we were blessed with the big heart
That can see past all the eat asses
Aw, what you thought I was gonna talk
All about walking with gangs where the drugs be
How about I touch on how
David Lange ran the country, right where the thugs be
John Walker might run at the tops, long distance
Scott Dixon on the track now
Rather a hand up than a hand down
All my people stand down

When I'm back out the Southside
Black white with the brown pride
Even yellows part of the picture
The boy all ups a perfect mixture
Here up out the southside
Everywhere this shit til the death
Walk with my head held high to the sky
My T-shirt say Southside til I die
The boy from the Southside

The bodies outlined with an aura
You can see it so clearly
I mean it looks like a [?] dairy
Or a Scorpians home crowd cheering
Or a Otahuhu mums eyes tearing
Not when the sons graduated from OC
26 to the 27 to the 29 of the 09 that's where the home be