[Intro]

Look

[Verse 1]

'Magine an island where the party never ends

Where it's less about money and it's more about friends

Where the vibes can't dun

It's less about fundin' and more about fun

Tropical sun

That's life in the '60s comin' from the Caribbean

You know Ian, Delroy, Vivian, Winston

Who got drafted to England

Windrush babies from Kingston to Brixton

To say they're the life of the party, you're wrong

My Jamaicans the entire party, you can't see?

Big Notting Hill carni, you can't see?

And the ride's fibre glass, G, you wan' see?

'Magine a place where you raisе your kids

The only place you live says, "You ain't a Brit"

Thеy're deportin' our people and it makes me sick

Cah they were broken by the country that they came to fix

It's like

[Interlude]

They came at the invitation of the British Government

Their passports were stamped 'indefinite leave to remain'

But for some, who were children then, that was a false promise

Thirty-seven years of paying taxes, and I got a letter saying I was an illegal immigrant

I came here to England at the age of ten and I've lived here all my life

[Verse 2]

Look, 'magine a world that's flawed and full of evil

Where dictators and leaders are persecutin' your people

The bodies of the innocents are pilin' to the steeples

The ironic part is they're preyin' on the feeble

That's life in the '90s, you're Eastern European

And you're seein' people dyin' 'cause they're fightin' for their freedom

They show you violence for havin' a voice

You move out with your kids in hope of havin' a choice

Life throws you a spanner, you can't handle the pain

So you gamble and you drink and then you gamble again

You argue with your wife, and then you sleep on the couch

You hit your children and start freezin' 'em out

You try and work things out, but it's never the same

All the women in your household are livin' afraid

When you look into the mirror you're reminded again

That you've become the dictator you were fightin' against

It's like

[Interlude]

We're fightin' for our rights, for our motherland

And then we-we, we are fighting for our homes

We are fighting for our, our fa—

[Verse 3]

Look, 'magine a world that's fucked and untrue

Where the many pay a price for the few

And every day the sun rises a little later

That's how it is when your oppressor is your liberator

That's right now livin' in the Middle East

Pray Salah for the peace

Death from a sky littered with stars

You run away with your kids so you can give them a chance

But your asylum has got you in a different war

Because the British wanna know what you're livin' here for

We rely on migration more than ever before

They're key workers, but they couldn't even get in the door

When you're at Heaven's gates, what you tellin' the Lord?

You wouldn't even let a kid into some steadier shores

That's a life they may never afford

Surely you would wanna give your people chances that were better than yours?

No?

[Interlude]

Ten years of conflict, and twelve thousand children have been killed or injured

The children here are just a tiny fraction of the estimated six million that are in need of emergency humanitarian assistance

It's thought perhaps as many as three million no longer live in their own homes

And up to two million children no longer attend school

The opportunities of this generation have been changed forever by this conflict

[Outro: Daniel Kaluuya]

I went to silence when I needed to know who, who the, who the fuck I was, bro

Like, I won't hear anyone else, shut everyone else out

So I could just hear myself, bro

You know what I'm sayin'?

'Cause we live in this world, yeah

You stand still, the way the tide's set up

It will take you away from yourself, you feel me?

So then I was like, "Alright, cool"

But, I had to get silent, but it's not like man's goin' against the tide

'Cause goin' against the tide still makes it about them

Still makes it about the poison that you've internalised, that's in your mind, you feel me?

It's like, "Bro, like, why am I in this water?"

Man, this ain't even water, it doesn't even like me, doesn't even—, it's not even for me

It's not takin' me where I wanna go, it's not takin' me where I wanna go

It's who, who the fuck I am, bro

You know what I'm sayin'?

So the tide will tell me that bein', bein' black is a obstacle

See what I'm sayin'?

I had to switch rivers, bro

I say bein' black is a asset

I am who I am because I'm black

And I love everythin' about it, you feel me?

And that's who the fuck I am