[Intro: Sampha]
Da, du-du-du-du
Du, da-da-da-da-da
Du
Du, psh
Du-du-du, hm
Du-du-du, yeah
[Chorus: Sampha & Ghetts ]
Check the foundations, structural imbalance
Falling double standards, I fell on my face
Hands in the rubble, people walking over me
I was one of them and kept walking away
I kept walking away (Away)
Away (Away)
Away
I kept walking away (Away)
Away (Away)
Away
I kept walking away ( Uh )
[Verse 1: Ghetts]
Look around the world, all I see is double standards
A mum naming her son Muhammed is a madness
Jack's in the airport with drugs in his baggage
And security are troublin' Muhammed 'bout a sandwich (Uh)
I was on the phone with a pal of mine, they ask me why they helpin' Ukraine and not Palestine
And I replied "brown skin," we were so whitewashed
Laughin' at names we had problems pronouncin'
Kwame said his name was Jerome
And he's from the Caribbean just so people would leave alone
And I remember it was fufu and voodoo jokes
Until he found the same thing that gave Zulu's hope
Sarah's dad hates Blacks, but her baby's mixed race
And all he's thinkin' is, "She may have been raped"
Imagine bein' light skin, but grandad's racist
And every time you're there, you hear an African statement
Look around the world, all I see is double standards
Even Mark Zuckerburg covers up his cameras
Steve Jobs never let his kids use an iPad
And my kids think that I'm bad, mad
Nie had no TV until she was a grown up
I used to think, "What the fuck?" When she told us
The government have got us in a chokehold
A hero if I kill for my country, and a villain if I kill for my postcode
Only fightin' for my freedom if it comes to it
You got to use your brain before you put a gun to his
Had to lose my way before I understood the trip
The good die young, the cemetery's full of "Should've beens"
These days, I'm doin' more and sayin' less
What's war? War's rich white men playin' chess
What for? Well, it's all about the land they finesse
God made man and man made a mess (Yes)
[Chorus: Sampha]
Check the foundations, structural imbalance
Falling double standards, I fell on my face
Hands in the rubble, people walking over me
I was one of them and kept walking away
I kept walking away (Away)
Away (Away)
Away
I kept walking away (Away)
Away (Away)
Away
I kept walking away
[Verse 2: Ghetts]
They're givin' brothers life sentences for drugs
While a paedophile would probably get less than twenty months
In the same court, same day, same judge
We only break the law because the law tries to break us
So how am I meant to be corrected
When they put my name and address in the papers?
But a child molester's identity is protected
Is anyone addressin' these failures?
I just spoke to my mum, oh, man
She said, "Police just killed another unarmed man"
Everyone complains, but nobody wan' go back home
It come like we don't love our land
Everyone's in Ghana in December
Come back home and start complainin' 'bout the weather
Raheem can score a hundred goals
But when he miss a penalty, it's monkey jokes, woah
And they got everybody clappin' for the NHS
But they don't wan' put no cash in the NHS
Soon, it's gonna be, "What happened to the NHS?"
Politicians gettin' paid more than teachers
Satan gettin' praise more than Jesus
Most bad bitches ain't artists, but they still paid for they features
It's the realest comin' through the speakers
Yeezy's the only reason we wore Adidas
And I don't wear Balenciaga anymore
And now I've said it, Fashion Week probably won't have me seated
Deep it, here's a likkle insight
Peep it, there goes my invite
I preed it, no one's speakin', that's why I'm an outsider on the inside
I got beef with the HMRC, the tax man jacks man, take half my P
I'm lookin' at the total, blud, can't you see?
Every time I pay tax, it's hard to breathe
I don't know if I'm paro', man, but I can talk about killings and drug dealings
But "Black Rose" is my only tune that's shadowbanned
[Outro]
The thing is, they got us mixed up, son
They want us to be like the slaves in the field
All we keep doin' is lookin' to the big house
That's not our aim, that's not our purpose
Let's own the field, turn our direction, turn around
Let's look from their view
They see the land, they see the world
All we kept, they kept us with the view lookin' at the big house
The house that master on, we got the wrong world view
White men are controlling the deaths of people just like chess
Because he decided that they shouldn’t be too much in front of screens, just like Steve Jobs did, his children think he is not good.
Nie had not wait to grow up before having access to TV regularly.
That reflects the problem of time screen and children.
In June 2016, users noticed that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg covered up the camera and microphone of his laptop in a post he shared celebrating the growth of the Instagram app.
This is a common practice to protect your personal identity in the case that a hacker breaches your privacy and accesses your webcam or microphone, gaining the ability to see and hear what you are doing while using your technology. Ghetts mentions how this is a specifically ironic concern for Mark Zuckerberg to have, as allegations of the Facebook app eavesdropping on users in order to target them for ads has been a long-standing concern regarding the app’s data privacy.
Refers to the racial abuse that many footballers face, especially Raheem Sterling. This line mostly refers to the abuse he suffered after Euro 2020
Ghetts infers that Kanye’s influence on Adidas and the founding of the ‘Yeezy’ was the only reason why black people wore Adidas as it was never fond of the community to wear the brand
Ghetts is challenging the unfair legal system of the UK, where some drug offences can lead to many, many more years in prison to child sexual offences.
Ghetts' music contains frequent allusions to violence and drugs. One example is one of his more popular hit tracks, 2011’s “Artillery,” where raps:
So I’ll spray that and split
When forensics got to the scene and saw the wounds
They said, “It must be a TEC”
Ghetts points out how he gets streamed, supported and backed whenever releasing music that contains incriminating lyrics, yet his 2018 song “Black Rose,” featuring Kojey Radical does not get the same support within the music industry. This is ironic because the track contains a positive message, one where Ghetts envisions a better future for his daughter, tackling racial and genders issues while reconciling with turmoil surrounding his heritage.
“HMRC” is an abbreviation for the HM Revenue & Customs—a legal department in the United Kingdom, primarily responsible for collecting taxes.
Ghetts makes it clear that the only people he has beef with is the government as it affects him more than his opps do. Noting that they take half of his money, considering Ghetts rakes in well over £125,140 a year, he’s liable to pay 45% of his income to the HMRC.
Due to the 2021-present cost-of-living crisis in the UK, with the inflation rate peaking at 11.1% in 2022, Ghetts struggles to breathe after seeing the deduction of his earnings, knowing that overall prices have increased.
The iPad is a tablet computer designed by Apple Inc., first released in 2010. The first-generation iPad received a great deal of positive critical reception thanks to its bountiful applications and innovation with touchscreen capabilities.
Shortly before he passed away, Apple founder Steve Jobs ironically said that he doesn’t let his kids use the newly released iPad in a 2011 interview with the New York Times:
We don’t allow the iPad in the home. We think it’s too dangerous for them in effect
Congruent with this track’s theme of double standards, Ghetts mentions this quote as an obvious hypocrisy, as Steve Jobs helped create the iPad, despite the fact that he views the product as harmful to his kids' adolescence.
Muhammed is a common Muslim name originating from the Prophet Muhammad (swt). Muslim and/or Arab travelers often face extra security measures when traveling through airports, mostly due to racial profiling. Jack is a common name of a white man, and this fictional character is carrying drugs through an airport in this song. However, someone else named Muhammed is facing extra scrutiny due to his name and possibly his skin color.
Refers to the ‘clap for your carers’ campaign during the Coronavirus pandemic in the UK. Many UK citizens would go outside their front door to clap for the NHS every Thursday at 20:00 during the pandemic.
