[Verse 1: mumbai gully rap male MC, punchy and quick over the tabla and the booming kick] Five a.m. at the studio gate with a hundred other guys Agent with a clipboard pickin' faces, pickin' size Today I'm a policeman, yesterday I was a guest Tomorrow I'm a body on the platform in a vest Three hundred films in fourteen years, the call sheet says "Crowd" Seven hundred rupees and a lunch box, not allowed to be loud I been shot in fifty movies, and I died with perfect form Fell off forty rooftops, and I danced in every storm I was in the wedding song with five hundred in the line Second row, eleventh from the left, and every step was mine [Hook: mumbai MC, shouted, the dholak rolling under every line] Background, background, look behind the star I'm the man who's runnin' past the hero's burnin' car Never got a close-up, never got a name I got more background than the star got fame [Verse 2: mumbai MC, harder, the sitar riff cutting through] Mama sees 'em every Friday at the single screen in town Front row with her glasses and a samosa, sittin' down Never once in fourteen years has the camera found my face I'm a blur behind the hero, I'm a smudge behind the chase But she claps at every crowd scene like her boy just won the cup And the uncles in the back row tell the lady "Please, shut up" Sister says "Bhai, give it up, you'll never get a line" I say "Every time the hero falls, he learned it watchin' mine" [Hook] Background, background, look behind the star I'm the man who's runnin' past the hero's burnin' car Never got a close-up, never got a name I got more background than the star got fame [Verse 3: drone entrance, a deep tanpura drone swells in under mumbai MC and stays, the tabla tightening] Last Friday at the single screen, I sat down by her side Asked her "Mama, how you clap for somebody you can't find?" She said "Beta, you don't know? I find you every time By your shoes, the brown ones, with the left heel worn behind You been runnin' in those shoes since you were seventeen Every film, I watch the floor, not the hero on the screen Third cop, there's your heel. The dead man, there's your toe Wedding song, eleventh left, I know the way you go" Fourteen years I'm in the background, and the only one who sees Is a lady in the front row lookin' at the floor for me [Hook] Background, background, look behind the star I'm the man who's runnin' past the hero's burnin' car Never got a close-up, never got a name I got more background than the star got fame [Outro: mumbai MC, over the drone and the tabla] Let the hero get the poster, let the hero get the crown I'm the biggest star in town when my mama looks down [End]
