Story Of The Pauper

(album: Momentum - 2011)

People are being made redundant
So my family and friends are amongst them
And everybody's family depends on the lump sum
Some ain't gonna see a salary when the month's done
How are you gonna tell a kid they ain't got to rob?
When the only role model he has just lost his job
Unemployed without another choice
Setting down the same path he tried to make his son avoid
And job seekers, allowance ain't for everyone
We've grown, there's no power in a pellet gun
You're trying to tell a nigga that's a bread winner
Forget dinner and he'll do things he's never done
It's the story of the pauper
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer
But don't get me wrong, three out of ten will cross the border
And be out the ends but still it weren't a shortcut
I understand what it took to do that
How my Naomi Campbell had to look to do that
What Levi Roots had to cook to do that
What kind of weight does top shotters have to push to do that
What kind of singer does [?] had to get on the [?] to do that
And when you're trying to push out
Of the same place you come from
Everybody has a go and pulling you back
So, it's bulletproof this and it's bulletproof that
I don't expect those from outside the slums to understand this
How you gonna relate? Your mum and dad's rich
Welcome to my ends, it's gully
And none of us are getting no inheritance money
What's your life like around there? Sway
I bet everything's honey
Yeah, yeah but you'll crop problems
But I bet yours has never been the money
Wait, I don't know you, so I shouldn't pass judgement
Vice versa but sometimes assets can define a person
And you ain't gotta tell me that you're rich
Because I know you are, your life is perfect
Is that why you turn your nose up at the lower-class?
Or is your life is just as fucked as mine behind curtains?
But you don't wanna show it
Because you got a names to uphold, I know
But when you come home, you unload
And chuck loads of stress
Staring in the mirror like, "I'm so depressed"
And now you wanna [?] to jet
Yeah, I get it
Yeah, I get it
Because I feel like that, six out of seven days
And that's why a nigga be addicted to lemonades
At least some man are spitting the system this Devil made
The government have got the nation brainwashed
A close friend of mine just left the Caribbean
When he got here, he said he should've stayed in Barbados
I could explain but I'd rather let you read between the lines
Yo, hold on, he switched your brain up
You couldn't even read the signs, where's his brain gone?
What can I say, dog?
The truth lays beneath the lies
But it's like I'm trying to lead the blinds
And they would rather remain lost, forever in the rap race
Life ain't getting no better and it's facts, mate
So I'm lighting up the lemon on a bad day
And as I let the zoot settle in my ash tray
I'm thinking of all the terrible things man made
Things that caused this inevitable rampage
I'm hoping I ain't got vegetables for a fanbase