[Verse 1] They say I'm too deep in the roads but it's all that I know Fifteen when I first touched a brick, now I'm running the zone Tracksuit, bally, late nights on the strip getting cold Watching out for the jakes and the opps, gotta stay on my toes See my older got bagged, doing eight up in Belmarsh Told me "little bro, don't be dumb," but I'm young and I'm careless Got a shank in my waist 'cause the ends are too reckless One wrong move, wrong postcode — you're checking out breathless Trap phone ringing nonstop, it's a twenty-four shift Breaking down the package, weighing grams, making profit quick Mum thinks I'm at college but I'm posted by the flats Moving food to the fiends while the feds monitor the mains and the traps This ain't Call of Duty but we're really in a war Postcode beef got us drilling, keeping score I done seen too much carnage for a yout my age But the streets don't care about your innocence or rage [Hook] This is life on the frontline Where brothers turn ghost Where the ends claim victims And we're raising a toast To the fallen, the locked up The ones doing bird This is concrete jungle Where survival's the word [Verse 2 - RAPID FIRE DELIVERY] [Tempo accelerates, words cascade like machine-gun fire] Active-on-the-block-got-the-strap-and-I'm-ready-for-whatever-opposition-wanna-bring-we-can-settle-it-together Riding-through-the-opp-block-windows-down-we're-applying-pressure-young-Gs-getting-reckless-with-the-violence-getting-extra County-lines-to-the-country-got-the-youngers-running-packages-trapping-out-the-bando-cooking-work-it's-getting-hazardous Feds-run-up-in-the-yard-so-we-flush-it-down-the-toilet-got-my-brief-on-speed-dial-no-comment-that's-the-policy Pattern-up-the-fit-then-I'm-stepping-out-in-trackie-mask-up-when-I'm-moving-can't-be-caught-up-on-the-CCTV Shotters-on-the-corner-and-they're-serving-all-the-crackheads-money-getting-flipped-but-the-risk-is-getting-drastic [Beat breathes, delivery slows for emphasis] Lost three mandem in a year to the streets and the system One got life, one got bored up, one just went missing This is real life, no cap, no exaggeration Just a roadman's testimony from a broken generation [Note: Rapid-fire delivery — 10-12 syllables per second, breathless and urgent] [Verse 3] I'm embedded in the trenches where the future looks bleak Where your life expectancy is measured in weeks If you're moving too sloppy or you're caught in the wrong ends They'll splash you up, leave you leaking while your heartbeat descends Got a burner unregistered, it's dirty but it works In the back of the ride when we're cruising, doing dirt Gliding through the borough with my akhi in the front Looking for the target, when we spot him, we confront This ain't personal, it's principle — it's postcode pride Where fifteen-year-olds are prepared to catch a homicide I've been moving in the shadows where the streetlights don't reach Where the elders on the block try to mentor but don't preach 'Cause they know that we're products of the system that abandoned us No youth clubs, no funding, just the trap and the cannabis So we hustle for the come-up, stack the paper, dodge the time Living fast, dying young — that's the roadman paradigm [Verse 4] Paranoia's got me tweaking every time I hear a siren Sleep with one eye open 'cause the opposition's violent Can't trust nobody fully, even family'll snake you When there's money on the table, watch how quick they'll try to take you I done dirt I ain't proud of but I needed to survive In the jungle where the weak don't make it out alive Got the work stashed everywhere — the yard, the whip, the stash spot Moving tactical and cautious 'cause one slip and you get got By the feds or the mandem from the other side of town Where they're hungry for revenge and they're trying to lay you down This is M-way driving with the pack up in the boot Praying that we don't get stopped or we're looking at a deuce In the can with the olders, doing time on the landing But the roads keep calling even when you understand it's A cycle of destruction, incarceration, death But we're trapped inside the system till there's nothing left [Outro] Welcome to the roads Where the young die old And the stories stay untold Till the casket's closed This is roadman reality No filter, no façade Just the truth of the pavement Where we're scarred by the odds
