(Intro: 4 Bars)
(Lonely piano loop. Hi-hats enter. Deep 808 slides in. Distant police radio crackle.)
(Filtered vocal sample: "You man don't know the psalms...")
(Snare crack. Beat drops.)
(Verse 1: 12 Bars)
Black Bally morning, no smile (Nah).
Ops get the shh-shh, filed (Dut-dut).
Chat on the net, move in the P's (Facts).
Let the tool talk, innit? (Brrrap).
Seen man fall outside the chicken spot (Rah).
Now his bredrin's on Live, it's a plot (Plot).
This ain't TV, it's hate in the clay (Deep).
Concrete psalms we pray.
Mum's tears are diesel, fuel the rage (Grr).
Feds link names on a whiteboard page (Web).
I scribble mine out in blood, engraved.
This pen's a shank, the paper's the yard (Skrr).
Every bar is a scar. Leave you marked.
(Chorus: 8 Bars)
CHANTING CONCRETE PSALMS IN THE BOROUGH OF PAIN (PAIN!)
BLOOD IN THE RAIN, A GAME WITH NO END (NO END!)
JUST ME, MY SHADOW, A HANDFUL OF MEN (BRRRAP!)
"FIND A WAY OUT," BUT THE WALL'S DOUBT AGAIN (RAH!)
SO WE CHANT CONCRETE PSALMS... TILL THE LAST PAGE.
(Verse 2: 12 Bars)
Deeper cuts, nerves exposed (Exposed).
Youth to wolf 'fore his beard growed (Growed).
System served crumbs, we took slices (Took it).
Price of that hunger? Life in crisis (Crisis).
Kicks scuffin' court, Probation talking (Skrr).
I'm just browsin' the new Nikes, walkin'.
Dreamt of FIFA, a simple peace (Peace).
Till Opps pulled up, made it cease (Rah!).
Lenses on the block, every post a plot (Plot).
Bars in the dark, curtains drawn shut (Shut).
This is cheap therapy for a mind stretched (Minds stretched).
Every memory's a trap, re-freshed (Dut-dut).
Pour this liquor for the lost (Pour one).
For the boys in the pics, who know the cost.
(Chorus: 8 Bars)
(Identical to first Chorus.)
(Outro: 8 Bars)
(Beat strips to piano & sub-bass. Weary spoken word.)
The mandem hear this... they know.
The girls hear this... they cry, they lived it too.
Olders nod. Feds add it to the file.
No glory. Just a story.
Same fear, different year.
Maybe my son hears this... from a better place.
And just hears the pain on my face.
Concrete psalms.
Innit.
(Sound of a single camera shutter. Silence.)
