[Intro] (Cold wind howling through estate corridors, distant siren dopplers past, single eerie synth stab holds like a held breath) [Verse 1] Yo, concrete jungle, grey sky bleeding Council flat dreaming, no light, just demons Shard in my sock, heart beat 140 Mandem move ghost when the blue lights revvin’ Postcode wars, no talk, just settings Postcode pride, get left on pavements Skippy hats skitter like rats in the drain Bassline hits ribs, feel the pain in my veins North London born, bred in the cold Where the reaper collects and the story stays untold No filter, no fake, just raw like the winter One wrong look and your name gets splintered [Pre-Chorus] Tension rising, chest tight, no air Siren closer, red-blue glare Hold that breath, don’t move, don’t stare One false move and you’re gone, swear [Chorus] Ends locked off, strip lights flicker Roads turn red when the beef gets thicker Bassline stabs like a shank in the liver Grime kids live fast, die quicker Locked off, strip lights flicker No way out when the strip gets bitter Shout my name when the mandem deliver Ends locked off, locked off forever [Break] (Industrial clangs, reversed siren, chopped vocal snippets: “Hey! — Locked— Hey! — Off—”) Heavy factory reverb, air-raid swell [Verse 2 – Double-time, breathless] Run up on strips where the cameras don’t reach Two-man step with the dots in the Jeep No face, no case, just a ghost in the night Leave man leaking like pipes in the pipes Mum prays hard but the roads stay calling Angels fall quick when the pagans start warring Sixteen summers, already seen corpses Sixteen winters, still moving them parcels Talk is cheap, get wrapped in a sheet Talk too much, get buried six feet I was fifteen when I first saw a body Fifteen stones when the feds tried to rob me Still I rise like the smoke from the zoot Still I ride for the squad and the truth [Verse 3 – Rapid-fire staccato triplets, pure speed, no gaps] Triple-time-killer-drill-a-man-quicker Lick-off-his-head-top-flip-and-get-bigger Spin-that-block-twice-never-miss-a-figure Six-in-the-spin-make-a-man-do-jigga Dash-from-the-guns-but-the-dotty-still-chase Dash-from-the-jakes-but-the-strip-never-safe Dash-from-my-past-but-the-past-never-fades Ghosts-in-my-head-keep-the-blade-in-the-waist Rate-me-or-hate-me-I’m-still-gonna-eat Plate-full-of-pain-but-I’m-never-gonna-beef Weak-hearted-youts-get-folded-like-creased Sheets-on-the-floor-when-the-12-gauge-speaks Peak-for-the-scene-when-the-mandem-release Beast-from-the-east-no-mercy-no-peace [Outro] (Sirens fade into the distance, heavy breathing, heartbeat slows… Abrupt silence. Cut dead.)
